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
- Alphonse Borrelly
- Discovery date
- 28 May 1868
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ d aɪ k iː /
- Named after
- Dike
- Alternative designations
- A915 BA; 1935 UC; 1935 YL; 1939 UT; 1948 UE; 1948 WC; 1961 XJ; 1974 VB
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Adjectives
- Dikean / d aɪ ˈ k iː ə n /
- Observation arc
- 101.25 yr (36980 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.18448 AU (476.391 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.14561 AU (320.979 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.66504 AU (398.684 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.35 yr (1589.1 d )
- Average orbital speed
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Dike
- Followed by
- 100 Hekate
- Follows
- 98 Ianthe
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +67.354
- Mass
- +390
- Orbital period
- +1587.500800012039
- Image
- 99Dike (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 4 more facts
Article
99 Dike (/ˈdaɪkiː/) is a quite large and dark main-belt asteroid. Dike was discovered by Alphonse Borrelly on May 28, 1868. It was his first asteroid discovery. This object is named after Dike, the Greek goddess of moral justice. Among the first hundred numbered minor planets, 99 Dike was considered anomalously faint for over a century. However, this was later found to be untrue.
This asteroid is orbiting the Sun with a period of 4.35 years and an eccentricity of 0.19. Its orbital plane is inclined by 13.8° to the plane of the ecliptic. The body spans a diameter of 69 km and it is classified as a C-type asteroid, which indicates it has a dark, carbonaceous surface. Based upon a light curve that was generated from photometric observations of this asteroid at Pulkovo Observatory, it has a rotation period of 18.127 ± 0.002 hours and varies in brightness by 0.22 ± 0.02 in magnitude. However, according to Shrindan E. (2009) the rotation period is rather of 10.360 ± 0.001 h.