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
- 1 September 1926
- Pronunciation
- / l oʊ ˈ b iː l i ə /
- Named after
- Lobelia ( flowering plant )
- Alternative designations
- 1926 RA · 1941 SK, 1965 AL 1 · A911 QB
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) , background
- Observation arc
- 106.28 yr (38,818 d )
- Aphelion
- 2.9050 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.8990 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.4020 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.72 yr (1,360 days)
- Mean anomaly
Article
1066 Lobelia, provisional designation 1926 RA, is a bright background asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 6 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 1 September 1926, by astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in Germany. The asteroid was named after the flowering plant Lobelia (lobelias).
Orbit and classification