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
- H. E. Wood
- Discovery site
- Johannesburg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 30 May 1924
- Named after
- Pafuri Triangle /River , (in South Africa)
- Alternative designations
- 1924 SA · 1937 XB, 1947 SA · 1961 AQ, 1965 YJ · A917 CC
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background
- Observation arc
- 100.95 yr (36,873 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.5799 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.6806 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1303 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.54 yr (2,023 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 317.36 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q121476
- Follows
- 1031 Arctica
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +65.658
- Orbital period
- +2021.611723406111
- Image
- 001032-asteroid shape model (1032) Pafuri.png
Show 4 more facts
Article
1032 Pafuri, provisional designation 1924 SA, is a dark background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 65 kilometers (40 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 30 May 1924, by English astronomer Harry Edwin Wood at the Union Observatory in Johannesburg, South Africa. The asteroid was named for the river in the Pafuri Triangle in South Africa, created by the confluence of the Limpopo and Levubu rivers. The body's spectral type and rotation period are still poorly determined.
Orbit and classification