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
- K. Reinmuth
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 23 February 1920
- Named after
- Name picked from the almanac , Lahrer Hinkender Bote
- Alternative designations
- A920 DC · 1920 GP, 1959 EE 1
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background
- Observation arc
- 99.79 yr (36,447 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.5999 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.6698 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1349 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.55 yr (2,027 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 9.2453 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q158061
- Follows
- Q158051
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +62.817
- Orbital period
- +2031.763794159691
- Image
- 000928-asteroid shape model (928) Hildrun.png
Show 3 more facts
Article
928 Hildrun (prov. designation: A920 DC or 1920 GP), is a dark background asteroid, approximately 64 kilometers (40 miles) in diameter, located in the outer region of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 23 February 1920, by astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in southwest Germany. The X-type asteroid has a rotation period of 14.1 hours. It was named "Hildrun", a common German female name unrelated to the discoverer's contemporaries, that was taken from the almanac Lahrer Hinkender Bote.
Orbit and classification