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
- Observation arc
- 86.00 yr (31,410 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.9991 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.7218 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.8604 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.84 yr (1,767 d)
- Mean anomaly
Article
993 Moultona, provisional designation 1923 NJ, is a Koronian asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 14 kilometers (8.7 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 12 January 1923, by astronomer George Van Biesbroeck at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, in the United States. The likely elongated asteroid has a rotation period of 5.3 hours. It was named after American astronomer Forest Ray Moulton.
Orbit and classification