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
772 Tanete (A913 YD)
- Orbit class
- Main-belt Asteroid
- Diameter
- 126.473 km
- Albedo
- 0.028
- Rotation period
- 17.258 h
- Absolute magnitude
- 8.450 H
Article
772 Tanete is an asteroid from the asteroid belt. Since 2004 it has been observed in stellar occultation four times. Its size is best described by an ellipsoid measuring 124.1±1.2 km x 116.1±1.2 km. Analysis of a light curve captured during 2014 shows a synodic rotation period of 17.258±0.001 h with an amplitude of 0.15 magnitude.
In 1984, a fly-by of 772 Tanete was considered for a Mariner Mark II rendezvous mission with the short period comet 22P/Kopff.