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
- V. Albitzkij
- Discovery site
- Simeiz Obs.
- Discovery date
- 23 June 1924
- Named after
- Olimpiada Albitskaya , (discoverer's mother)
- Alternative designations
- 1924 RT · 1928 FQ, 1948 QO · 1957 OC, 1961 JF · 1962 QK, A910 NA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background
- Observation arc
- 106.79 yr (39,006 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.2959 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.3144 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.8051 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.70 yr (1,716 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 10.487 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Olympic Games
- Followed by
- Q118370
- Follows
- 1021 Flammario
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +34.297
- Orbital period
- +1721.454808435838
- Image
- 1022 Olympiada orbit on 20 Jan 2013 ecliptic view.png
Show 4 more facts
Article
1022 Olympiada, provisional designation 1924 RT, is a background asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 30 kilometers (19 miles) in diameter. It was discovered at the Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula on 23 June 1924, by Soviet astronomer Vladimir Albitsky, who named it after his mother, Olimpiada Albitskaya. The X-type asteroid has a short rotation period of 3.83 hours.
Orbit and classification