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
- M. Wolf , F. Schwassmann
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 15 September 1900 ; 125 years ago ( 1900-09-15 )
- Pronunciation
- / æ l ə ˈ ɡ eɪ n i ə /
- Named after
- Allegheny, Pennsylvania , ( John Brashear optics)
- Alternative designations
- 1900 FJ · 1938 SA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · (outer)
- Observation arc
- 115.57 yr (42213 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.6339 AU (543.62 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.5553 AU (382.27 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.0946 AU (462.95 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.44 yr (1988.4 d )
- Mean anomaly
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Allegheny Observatory
- Followed by
- Q154499
- Follows
- Q154457
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +18.739
- Orbital period
- +1988.535722451689
Show 3 more facts
Article
457 Alleghenia, provisional designation 1900 FJ, is a carbonaceous asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, about 34 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 15 September 1900, by German astronomers Max Wolf and Friedrich Schwassmann at Heidelberg Observatory in southern Germany.
The C-type asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.6–3.6 AU once every 5 years and 5 months (1,987 days). Its orbit is tilted by 13 degrees to the plane of the ecliptic and shows an eccentricity of 0.17. Based on assumptions made by the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link, the body has a low albedo of 0.06, a typical value for a carbonaceous asteroid. In 2014, photometric light-curve observations at the Los Algarrobos Observatory (OLASU, I38), Uruguay, has given a rotation period of 21.953±0.001 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.20 in magnitude. It was the last among the first 500 numbered asteroids to have its period measured for the first time (also see 398 Admete).