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
- Franz Kaiser
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg
- Discovery date
- 18 October 1911
- Alternative designations
- 1911 MW
- Observation arc
- 117.11 yr (42775 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.9376 AU (439.46 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.8371 AU (424.42 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.8873 AU (431.93 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.91 yr (1792.0 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 350.275 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 12 3.204 / day
- Inclination
- 2.3562°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 35.706°
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q156738
- Follows
- 719 Albert
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +33.73
- Orbital period
- +1794.693135206761
- Image
- 720Bohlinia (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 5 more facts
Article
720 Bohlinia is a minor planet, and binary asteroid, orbiting the Sun that was discovered by Franz Kaiser, a German astronomer in 1911. It is named for Swedish astronomer Karl Petrus Theodor Bohlin, to mark his 65th birthday. He had worked on the orbits of asteroids.
It is one of the Koronis family of asteroids. A group of astronomers, including Lucy d'Escoffier Crespo da Silva and Richard P. Binzel, used observations made between 1998 through 2000 to determine the spin-vector alignment of these asteroids. The collaborative work resulted in the creation of 61 new individual rotation lightcurves to augment previous published observations.