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
- 7 December 1926
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ m ɛ n θ ə /
- Named after
- Mentha (flowering plant)
- Alternative designations
- 1926 XB& · 1951 CF 1 , 1952 LD · A917 CB , A924 EP
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) , background
- Observation arc
- 93.66 yr (34,208 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.5832 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.9555 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.2693 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.42 yr (1,249 days)
- Mean anomaly
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Mentha
- Followed by
- Q132944
- Follows
- 1077 Campanula
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +12.619
- Orbital period
- +1248.641680276064
Show 4 more facts
- P65
Article
1078 Mentha, provisional designation 1926 XB, is a stony background asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 13 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 7 December 1926, by astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in southwest Germany. Only in 1958, it was realized that this object was a rediscovery of an already numbered but lost asteroid (864 Aase).
The asteroid was named after the flowering plant of the mint family, Mentha. It has a longer-than average spin rate of 85 hours and possibly an irregular, elongated shape.