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
- Norman Robert Pogson
- Discovery date
- April 17, 1861
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ eɪ ʃ i ə /
- Named after
- Asia and Asia
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Aphelion
- 2.869 AU (429.2 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 1.973 AU (295.2 Gm )
- Semi major axis
- 2.421 AU (362.2 Gm )
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.7674140999315 yr (1,376.048 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 182.178°
- Inclination
- 6.027°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 202.722°
- Time of perihelion
- 2023-Dec-10
Article
67 Asia is a large main belt asteroid. It was discovered by English astronomer N. R. Pogson on April 17, 1861, from the Madras Observatory. Pogson chose the name to refer both to Asia, a figure in Greek mythology, and to the continent of Asia, because the asteroid was the first to be discovered from that continent.
a image of a lightcurve image of 67 Asia. This object is orbiting the Sun with a period of 3.77 years, a semimajor axis of 2.421 AU, and an eccentricity of 0.185. It has a 2:1 commensurability with Mars, having an orbital period double that of the planet. The orbital plane lies at an inclination of 6.0° to the plane of the ecliptic. This is a stony S-type asteroid with a cross-sectional size of 56 km, Photometry from the Oakley Observatory during 2006 produced a lightcurve that indicated a sidereal rotation period of 15.90±0.02 with an amplitude of 0.26±0.04 in magnitude.