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
- K. Reinmuth
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 12 January 1924
- Named after
- Sarema , (character in opera/poem)
- Alternative designations
- 1924 PM · 1942 VC 1 , 1954 XL · 1954 YF, A907 VQ · A907 WA, A924 AD
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Nysa , background
- Observation arc
- 110.21 yr (40,255 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.8132 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.1460 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.4796 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.90 yr (1,426 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 45.983 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q11549
- Follows
- Q11546
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +20.905
- Orbital period
- +1425.873147102209
- Image
- 001012-asteroid shape model (1012) Sarema.png
Show 4 more facts
Article
1012 Sarema (prov. designation: A924 AD or 1924 PM) is a dark background asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 21 kilometers (13 miles) kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 12 January 1924, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory at Heidelberg, Germany. The asteroid has a rotation period of 10.3 hours and probably an elongated shape. It was named after Sarema, a character in the poem The Fountain of Bakhchisaray by Aleksandr Pushkin, and the protagonist of the opera Sarema by Alexander von Zemlinsky based upon it.
Orbit and classification