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
- 4 August 1926
- Named after
- Roald Amundsen , (Norwegian polar explorer)
- Alternative designations
- 1926 PD · 1930 XL, 1955 QE · 1955 RD, 1955 SM 1
- Minor planet category
- Mars-crosser
- Observation arc
- 91.15 yr (33,294 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.0617 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.6604 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.3611 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.63 yr (1,325 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 38.699 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Roald Amundsen
- Followed by
- Q132902
- Follows
- Q132897
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Orbital period
- +1326.280975948465
Show 4 more facts
- P720
Article
1065 Amundsenia, provisional designation 1926 PD, is a stony asteroid and sizeable Mars-crosser on an eccentric orbit from the inner asteroid belt, approximately 10 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 4 August 1926, by Soviet astronomer Sergey Belyavsky at the Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula. The asteroid was named after Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen.
Orbit and classification