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
- G. van Biesbroeck
- Discovery site
- Yerkes Obs.
- Discovery date
- 14 January 1927
- Pronunciation
- / m ɪ ˈ m oʊ z ə , - s ə /
- Named after
- Mimosa ( flowering plant )
- Alternative designations
- 1927 AD · 1961 AM
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , Koronis · Karin
- Observation arc
- 90.80 yr (33,165 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.0127 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.7332 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.8729 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.87 yr (1,779 days)
- Mean anomaly
Article
1079 Mimosa, provisional designation 1927 AD, is a stony Karin or Koronian asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 20 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 14 January 1927, by Belgian–American astronomer George Van Biesbroeck at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. The asteroid was named after the flowering plant Mimosa.
Orbit and classification