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
- 6 November 1923
- Named after
- Lydia Il'inichna Albitskaya , (discoverer's wife)
- Alternative designations
- 1923 PG · A907 JF, A914 JA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background · Cybele
- Observation arc
- 110.80 yr (40,471 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.7695 AU
- Perihelion
- 3.0454 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.4075 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 6.29 yr (2,297 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 346.68 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q119282
- Follows
- Q119261
- Parent body
- Sun
- Diameter
- +88.526
- Orbital period
- +2299.94943724596
Show 4 more facts
- P720
- C-type asteroid
- P6259
Article
1028 Lydina, provisional designation 1923 PG, is a carbonaceous background asteroid and member of the Cybele group from the outermost regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 82 kilometers (50 miles) in diameter. It was discovered at the Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula on 6 November 1923, by Soviet astronomer Vladimir Albitsky, who named it after his wife, Lydia Il'inichna Albitskaya. The dark C-type asteroid has a rotation period of 11.68 hours.
Orbit and classification