Picture of the Day · NASA
NGC 3660 and Burçin's Galaxy
2026-05-26
The upper galaxy might be more photogenic, but the lower galaxy is more unusual. The galaxy up top is NGC 3660, a spiral galaxy similar to our own Milky Way galaxy in that it has several bright blue spiral arms and a central bar of stars, dust, and gas. Captured by chance in the featured deep and colorful image, surprisingly, is SN 2026cff, a supernova found just to the right of the central bar. Farther in the distance is the bottom galaxy, known informally as Burçin’s galaxy, but formally cataloged as LEDA 1000714. The center of this galaxy appears to be an old elliptical galaxy, but it is strangely surrounded by not one but two rings of stars. What created Burçin's galaxy is a mystery and remains a continuing topic of research, but it likely involves the accretion of one or more smaller galaxies.
via NASA APOD
Key facts
- Discovered by
- Max Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg
- Discovery date
- 27 August 1906
- Pronunciation
- / dʒ uː ˈ v ɪ z i ə / , French: [ ʒyvizia ]
- Alternative designations
- 1906 UU
- Observation arc
Article
605 Juvisia is a minor planet, specifically an asteroid orbiting in the asteroid belt that was discovered 27 August 1906 in Heidelberg by German astronomer Max Wolf. It was named after the commune Juvisy-sur-Orge, France, where French astronomer Camille Flammarion had his observatory.
Photometric observations at the Palmer Divide Observatory in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1999 were used to build a light curve for this object. The asteroid displayed a rotation period of 15.93 ± 0.02 hours and a brightness variation of 0.25 ± 0.01 in magnitude.