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
- 2 January 1916
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ t ɔːr ɪ s /
- Named after
- Crimea , (peninsula on the Black Sea in Eastern Europe)
- Alternative designations
- A916 AE · 1927 BA, A907 JE · 1916 YT
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) background
- Observation arc
- 104.01 yr (37,990 d)
- Aphelion
- 4.1233 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.1884 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1558 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.61 yr (2,048 d)
- Mean anomaly
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q157240
- Follows
- Q157232
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +102.229
- Orbital period
- +2053.306016047606
Show 4 more facts
- P720
Article
814 Tauris (prov. designation: A916 AE or 1916 YT) is a dark and very large background asteroid, approximately 109 kilometers (68 miles) in diameter, located the outer regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 2 January 1916, by astronomer Russian Grigory Neujmin at the Simeiz Observatory on Crimea. The carbonaceous C-type asteroid has a longer-than average rotation period of 35.8 hours. It was named after the ancient name of the Crimean peninsula where the discovering observatory is located.
Orbit and classification