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
- 13 August 1925
- Pronunciation
- / m æ ɡ ˈ n oʊ l i ə /
- Named after
- Magnolia ( flowering plant )
- Alternative designations
- 1925 PA · 1945 OA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) , Flora
- Observation arc
- 92.29 yr (33,709 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.6902 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.7844 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.2373 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.35 yr (1,222 days)
- Mean anomaly
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Magnolia
- Followed by
- Q132890
- Follows
- 1059 Mussorgskia
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +6.844
- Orbital period
- +1222.556095136425
Show 3 more facts
- P65
Article
1060 Magnolia, provisional designation 1925 PA, is a stony Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 7 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 13 August 1925, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory. The asteroid was named after the flowering plant magnolia.
Orbit and classification