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
- 12 September 1923
- Pronunciation
- / l ə ˈ ɡ r ɒ n dʒ i ə /
- Named after
- Joseph-Louis Lagrange , (Italian astronomer)
- Alternative designations
- 1923 OU
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer )
- Observation arc
- 93.73 yr (34,235 days)
- Aphelion
- 4.2641 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.0210 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1425 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.57 yr (2,035 days)
- Mean anomaly
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Joseph-Louis Lagrange
- Followed by
- Q11537
- Follows
- 1005 Arago
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +35.31
- Orbital period
- +2029.729635724002
Show 3 more facts
- P65
Article
Lagrangea (minor planet designation: 1006 Lagrangea), provisional designation 1923 OU, is a carbonaceous background asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 30 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 12 September 1923, by Russian astronomer Sergey Belyavsky at the Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula. The asteroid was named after Italian mathematician and astronomer Joseph-Louis Lagrange.
Orbit and classification