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
- S. Belyavskyj
- Discovery site
- Simeiz Obs.
- Discovery date
- 8 September 1915
- Named after
- Adele, character in the operetta Die Fledermaus
- Alternative designations
- A915 RU · A902 UE, 1915 XV
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) Eunomia
- Observation arc
- 104.40 yr (38,132 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.0981 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.2220 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.6601 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.34 yr (1,585 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 46.769 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q157232
- Follows
- Q157220
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +12.356
- Orbital period
- +1583.547433843592
- Image
- 812Adele (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 3 more facts
Article
812 Adele (prov. designation: A915 RU or 1915 XV) is an elongated Eunomia asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 8 September 1915, by Russian astronomer Sergey Belyavsky at the Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula. The presumed S-type asteroid has a rotation period of 5.9 hours and measures approximately 13 kilometers (8 miles) in diameter. It was likely named after the character "Adele" in the opera Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss.
Orbit and classification