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
- M. F. Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 31 October 1923
- Named after
- La Paz (Bolivian capital)
- Alternative designations
- 1923 PD · 1950 UN, 1970 JA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer )
- Observation arc
- 93.41 yr (34,118 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.3333 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.8495 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.0914 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.44 yr (1,985 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 70.925 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 52.68 / day
Article
La Paz (minor planet designation: 1008 La Paz), provisional designation 1923 PD, is a carbonaceous asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 40 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 31 October 1923, by German astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory and named after the city La Paz in Bolivia.
Orbit and classification