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
- S. Belyavskyj
- Discovery site
- Simeiz Obs.
- Discovery date
- 11 October 1925
- Named after
- Ljuba Berlin , (Soviet parachutist)
- Alternative designations
- 1925 TD · 1943 EH 1 , 1976 MM · A904 TB, A914 SD · A917 GB, A924 ND
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background
- Observation arc
- 91.55 yr (33,437 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.2145 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.7948 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.0046 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.21 yr (1,902 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 218.82 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q132896
- Follows
- Q132890
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +58.031
- Orbital period
- +1905.429256025727
Show 3 more facts
- P6259
Article
1062 Ljuba, provisional designation 1925 TD, is a carbonaceous background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 58 kilometers (36 miles) in diameter. The asteroid was discovered on 11 October 1925, by Soviet–Russian astronomer Sergey Belyavsky at the Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula. It was named after female paratrooper Ljuba Berlin, who died at an early age. The C-type asteroid has a longer-than average rotation period of 33.8 hours.
Orbit and classification