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
Small body data
747 Winchester (A913 EK)
- Orbit class
- Main-belt Asteroid
- Diameter
- 171.710 km
- Albedo
- 0.050
- Rotation period
- 9.415 h
- Absolute magnitude
- 8.030 H
- Earth MOID
- 1.080 AU
via NASA/JPL Small-Body Database
Key facts
- Discovered by
- Joel Hastings Metcalf
- Discovery site
- Winchester, Massachusetts
- Discovery date
- 7 March 1913
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ w ɪ n tʃ ɪ s t ər /
- Alternative designations
- 1913 QZ
- Adjectives
- Winchestrian / w ɪ n ˈ tʃ ɛ s t r i ə n /
- Observation arc
- 103.11 yr (37662 d)
- Aphelion
- 4.0220 AU (601.68 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 1.9802 AU (296.23 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.0011 AU (448.96 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.20 yr (1899.0 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 59.0474 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Winchester
- Followed by
- 748 Simeïsa
- Follows
- 746 Marlu
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +171.71
- Orbital period
- +1896.945627907279
- Image
- 747Winchester (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 4 more facts
Article
747 Winchester is an asteroid, a minor planet orbiting the Sun. It was discovered in 1913, and is named after the town in which it was discovered, Winchester, Massachusetts, in the USA.
Photometric observations of this asteroid at the Palmer Divide Observatory in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 2007 gave a light curve with a period of 9.4146 ± 0.0002 hours and a brightness variation of 0.16 ± 0.02 in magnitude. This is reasonably consistent with independent results reported in 1983 (9.40h), 1993 (9.402h), and 2007 (9.334h).