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
- Joel Hastings Metcalf
- Discovery site
- Taunton, Massachusetts
- Discovery date
- 7 November 1909
- Alternative designations
- 1909 JA
- Observation arc
- 106.44 yr (38878 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.5372 AU (529.16 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 1.8114 AU (270.98 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.6743 AU (400.07 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.37 yr (1597.4 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 201.11 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 13 31.332 / day
- Inclination
- 15.849°
- Longitude of ascending node
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 695 Bella
- Follows
- Q156559
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +121.891
- Orbital period
- +1593.507455973079
- Image
- 694Ekard (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 4 more facts
Article
694 Ekard is a minor planet orbiting the Sun that was discovered by American astronomer Joel Hastings Metcalf on November 7, 1909. The asteroid's name comes from the reverse spelling of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where Seth Barnes Nicholson and his wife calculated its orbit.
Photometric observations of this asteroid gave a light curve with a period of 5.925 hours and a brightness variation of 0.50 in magnitude. Measurements of the thermal inertia of 694 Ekard give a value of around 100–140 J m K s, compared to 50 for lunar regolith and 400 for coarse sand in an atmosphere.