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
- 29 January 1924
- Named after
- figure in poem, by Aleksandr Pushkin
- Alternative designations
- 1924 PW · 1932 WH, 1984 YP 6
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle )
- Observation arc
- 93.02 yr (33,975 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.3624 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.2443 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.8034 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.69 yr (1,714 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 332.39 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q11552
- Follows
- Q11549
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +17.487
- Orbital period
- +1710.103418693147
Show 4 more facts
Article
1014 Semphyra, provisional designation 1924 PW, is a background asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 17 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 29 January 1924, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany. The asteroid was named after the character "Semphyra" in a poem by Aleksandr Pushkin. (Zemfira, "The Gypsies")
Orbit and classification