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
- S. Belyavskyj
- Discovery site
- Simeiz Obs.
- Discovery date
- 8 August 1923
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ ɡ aʊ s i ə /
- Named after
- Carl Friedrich Gauss , (German mathematician)
- Alternative designations
- 1923 OA · A907 XC, A911 MD
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer )
- Observation arc
- 109.33 yr (39,933 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.6150 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.8046 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.2098 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.75 yr (2,100 days)
- Mean anomaly
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Carl Friedrich Gauss
- Followed by
- 1002 Olbersia
- Follows
- 1000 Piazzia
- Parent body
- Sun
- Diameter
- +72.711
- Orbital period
- +2102.626997077537
- Image
- AnimatedOrbitOf1001Gaussia.gif
Show 4 more facts
Article
Gaussia (minor planet designation: 1001 Gaussia), provisional designation 1923 OA, is a dark background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 73 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 8 August 1923, by Soviet astronomer Sergey Belyavsky at the Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula. The asteroid was named after German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss. Gauss computed the orbit of Ceres, and 1001 Gaussia was named along with 1000 Piazzia, and 1002 Olbersia in part for their work on Ceres, with names for Giuseppe Piazzi, who found Ceres, and Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers, who recovered it later that year.
Orbit and classification