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
- B. Jekhovsky
- Discovery site
- Algiers Obs.
- Discovery date
- 17 January 1924
- Named after
- D. Tombeck , (Faculty of Sciences of Paris)
- Alternative designations
- 1924 PQ · 1953 TP 3 , 1962 VK · A905 UG, A907 GW · A924 BL
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) , Mitidika · Eunomia
- Observation arc
- 111.69 yr (40,795 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.2444 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.1230 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.6837 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.40 yr (1,606 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 95.024 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q11551
- Follows
- Q11548
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +34.613
- Orbital period
- +1605.93810257011
- Image
- 001013-asteroid shape model (1013) Tombecka.png
Show 4 more facts
Article
1013 Tombecka (prov. designation: A924 BL or 1924 PQ) is a metallic Mitidika asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 34 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 17 January 1924, by Russian-French astronomer Benjamin Jekhowsky at the Algiers Observatory in North Africa. The asteroid was named after the secretary of the Faculty of Sciences of Paris, D. Tombecka.
Orbit and classification