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
- M. F. Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 23 September 1916
- Named after
- Karl Schwarzschild
- Alternative designations
- 1916 AG · 1951 TB, 1965 VJ
- Minor planet category
Article
837 Schwarzschilda, provisional designation 1916 AG, is a low-eccentric, well-observed asteroid from the asteroid belt, orbiting the Sun with a period of 3.48 years at a distance of 2.21–2.39 AU. It was discovered by German astronomer Max Wolf at Heidelberg Observatory on 23 September 1916.
The main-belt asteroid was named after physicist and astronomer Karl Schwarzschild (1873–1916), who had died earlier that year. He was director of the observatories in Göttingen and Potsdam, known for his work in photometry, geometrical optics, stellar statistics and theoretical astrophysics, most notably for producing the first exact solutions to Einstein's field equations. At the time, it was custom to give feminized names to minor planets.