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
- Hermann Mayer Salomon Goldschmidt
- Discovery site
- Paris Observatory
- Discovery date
- 5 May 1861
- Pronunciation
- / p æ n ə ˈ p iː ə /
- Named after
- Panopea
- Minor planet category
- main belt
- Adjectives
- Panopaean
- Aphelion
- 3.0903 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.1402 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.61526 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 1544.79 days (4.23 years)
- Mean anomaly
- 264.193°
- Inclination
- 11.584°
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Panopea
- Followed by
- Q212970
- Follows
- 69 Hesperia
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +127.911
- Orbital period
- +1543.255414316367
Show 4 more facts
- P720
Article
70 Panopaea is a large main belt asteroid. Its orbit is close to those of the Eunomia asteroid family; however, Panopaea is a dark, primitive carbonaceous C-type asteroid in contrast to the S-type asteroids of the Eunomian asteroids. The spectra of the asteroid displays evidence of aqueous alteration. Photometric studies give a rotation period of 15.797 hours and an amplitude of 0.11±0.01 in magnitude. Previous studies that suggested the rotation period may be twice this amount were rejected based upon further observation.
Panopaea was discovered by Hermann Goldschmidt on 5 May 1861. It was his fourteenth and last asteroid discovery. It is named after Panopea, a nymph in Greek mythology; the name was chosen by Robert Main, President of the Royal Astronomical Society. In 1862, Swedish astronomer Nils Christoffer Dunér gave a doctoral thesis on the orbital elements of this asteroid.