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
- J. H. Metcalf
- Discovery site
- Winchester Obs.
- Discovery date
- 23 September 1913
- Named after
- William Cranch Bond (1789–1859), George Phillips Bond (1825–1865), (American astronomers)
- Alternative designations
- A913 SD · 1929 OA, 1933 FO 1 · 1938 DQ 2 , 1957 UR · 1958 XA 1 , 1959 AD · A902 SA, 1913 SX
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , Themis
- Observation arc
- 117.59 yr (42,949 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.6909 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.5531 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1220 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.52 yr (2,015 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 137.11 °
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- George Phillips Bond
- Followed by
- 768 Struveana
- Follows
- Q157001
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +43.039
- Orbital period
- +2011.304531475619
- Image
- 000767-asteroid shape model (767) Bondia.png
Show 4 more facts
Article
767 Bondia (prov. designation: A913 SD or 1913 SX) is a Themis asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 43 kilometers (27 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 23 September 1913, by American astronomer Joel Hastings Metcalf at his observatory (799) in Winchester, Massachusetts. The B-type asteroid has a rotation period of 8.3 hours. It was named after William Cranch Bond (1789–1859) and his son George Phillips Bond (1825–1865), both American astronomers and directors of the Harvard College Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Orbit and classification