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
- 9 September 1926
- Pronunciation
- / l uː ˈ n ɛər i ə /
- Named after
- Lunaria ( flowering plant )
- Alternative designations
- 1926 RG · 1974 PJ, 1974 QC 3
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , Itha
- Observation arc
- 90.74 yr (33,142 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.4206 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.3207 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.8706 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.86 yr (1,777 days)
- Mean anomaly
Article
1067 Lunaria, provisional designation 1926 RG, is a stony Itha asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 18 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 9 September 1926, by astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in southwest Germany. The asteroid was named after the flowering plant Lunaria (honesty).
Orbit and classification