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
- 25 May 1917
- Named after
- Schön Rotraut , (poem by Eduard Mörike )
- Alternative designations
- A917 KK · 1976 WJ, 1917 CC
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) background
- Observation arc
- 102.67 yr (37,499 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.4039 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.8992 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1515 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.59 yr (2,044 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 171.80 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 875 Nymphe
- Follows
- 873 Mechthild
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +58.287
- Orbital period
- +2044.417979398624
- Image
- 874Rotraut (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 3 more facts
Article
874 Rotraut (prov. designation: A917 KK or 1917 CC) is a dark and elongated background asteroid, approximately 58 kilometers (36 miles) in diameter, located in the outer region of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 25 May 1917, by astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory is southwest Germany. The hydrated carbonaceous C-type asteroid (Ch) has a rotation period of 14.3 hours. It was likely named after the ballad Schön Rotraut by German lyric poet Eduard Mörike (1804–1875).
Orbit and classification