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
- Johann Palisa
- Discovery date
- 31 March 1886
- Pronunciation
- / ɒ ˈ p eɪ v i ə /
- Named after
- Opava
- Alternative designations
- A886 FB, 1904 EC, 1924 TA, 1938 VC, 1938 XC, 1945 GD, 1951 SG
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 129.86 yr (47,431 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.959 AU (442.6 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.533 AU (379.0 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.746 AU (410.8 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.551 yr (1,662.1 d)
- Average orbital speed
- 17.98 km/s
- Mean anomaly
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Opava
- Followed by
- 256 Walpurga
- Follows
- 254 Augusta
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +56.939
- Orbital period
- +1662.605560006474
Show 4 more facts
- P65
Article
255 Oppavia is a sizeable Main belt asteroid. It was discovered by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa on 31 March 1886 in Vienna and was named after Opava, a town in the Czech Republic, then part of Austria-Hungary, where Palisa was born. It is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 2.75 AU with an orbital eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.077 and a period of 4.55 yr. The orbital plane is inclined by an angle of 9.47° to the plane of the ecliptic.
Photometric observations made during 2013 indicate a synodic rotation period of 19.499±0.001 h with an amplitude of 0.16±0.02 in magnitude. The unusual light curve shows three uneven minima and maxima per cycle. In 1995, 255 Oppavia was suggested as a peripheral member of the now defunct Ceres asteroid family, but was found to be an unrelated interloper on the basis of its non-matching spectral type. It classified as a dark X-type asteroid in the Tholen taxonomy.