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
- G. Neujmin
- Discovery site
- Simeiz Obs.
- Discovery date
- 14 March 1913
- Named after
- Simeiz / Simeiz Obs. , (Town and Observatory)
- Alternative designations
- A913 EL · 1925 QG, 1936 BG · 1941 SU, 1942 XU · 1944 DC, 1951 CX · 1957 UL 1 , 1963 MC · 1913 RD
Article
748 Simeïsa (prov. designation: A913 EL or 1913 RD) is a very large Hilda asteroid from the outermost regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 104 kilometers (65 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 14 March 1913, by Russian astronomer Grigory Neujmin at the Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula. The dark P-type asteroid has a rotation period of 11.9 hours and a shape that is reminiscent of a tetrahedron. It was the first asteroid discovery made in Russia and named after the discovering observatory and its nearby Crimean town, Simeiz.
Orbit and classification