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
- Joel Hastings Metcalf
- Discovery site
- Taunton, Massachusetts
- Discovery date
- 27 November 1907
- Pronunciation
- / b ɛr ɪ ˈ n aɪ k iː /
- Named after
- Berenice II
- Alternative designations
- 1907 BK
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 108.38 yr (39584 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.1360 AU (469.14 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.8961 AU (433.25 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.01609 AU (451.201 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.24 yr (1913.2 d )
- Mean anomaly
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Berenice II
- Followed by
- 654 Zelinda
- Follows
- 652 Jubilatrix
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +49.793
- Orbital period
- +1911.467175061031
Show 4 more facts
- P65
Article
653 Berenike is a main-belt asteroid discovered on 27 November 1907 by Joel Hastings Metcalf at Taunton, Massachusetts. It is named after Berenice II of Egypt, after whom the constellation Coma Berenices is also named. The name may have been inspired by the asteroid's provisional designation 1907 BK.
Berenike is a member of the dynamic Eos family of asteroids that most likely formed as the result of a collisional breakup of a parent body.