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
773 Irmintraud (A913 YF)
- Orbit class
- Main-belt Asteroid
- Diameter
- 91.672 km
- Albedo
- 0.048
- Rotation period
- 6.751 h
- Absolute magnitude
- 9.130 H
- Earth MOID
- 1.620 AU
via NASA/JPL Small-Body Database
Key facts
- Discovered by
- F. Kaiser
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 22 December 1913
- Pronunciation
- German: [ ˈɪʁmɪntʁaʊt ]
- Named after
- Irmtraud , (German given-name)
- Alternative designations
- 1913 TV · 1946 SO, A910 CG
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · (outer)
- Observation arc
- 102.32 yr (37372 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.0876 AU (461.90 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.6294 AU (393.35 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.8585 AU (427.63 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.83 yr (1765.2 d )
- Mean anomaly
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q157030
- Follows
- 772 Tanete
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +91.672
- Orbital period
- +1766.633872144535
Show 4 more facts
Article
773 Irmintraud, provisional designation 1913 TV, is a dark and reddish, rare-type asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, about 92 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 22 December 1913, by German astronomer Franz Kaiser at Heidelberg Observatory in southern Germany.
The asteroid is classified as a D-type and T-type body in the Tholen and SMASS taxonomy, respectively. The rare spectral T-type is similar to D-types which are often found among Jupiter trojans thought to have originated from the Kuiper belt. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.6–3.1 AU once every 4 years and 10 months (1,763 days). Its orbit is tilted by 17 degrees to the plane of the ecliptic and shows a low eccentricity of 0.08. According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite, IRAS, the Japanese Akari satellite, and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, the minor planet's low albedo lies in the range of 0.04–0.05. It has a well-defined rotation period of 6.75 hours, determined by several concurring observations.