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
- C. Jackson
- Discovery site
- Johannesburg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 5 April 1929
- Named after
- Catriona (novel by, Robert Louis Stevenson )
- Alternative designations
- 1929 GD · 1926 RQ, A908 AC
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) background
- Observation arc
- 109.01 yr (39,815 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.5946 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.2522 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.9234 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.00 yr (1,826 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 348.27 °
- Mean motion
Article
1116 Catriona (prov. designation: 1929 GD) is a carbonaceous asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 39 kilometers (24 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 5 April 1929 by South African astronomer Cyril Jackson at the Union Observatory in Johannesburg. The asteroid was likely named after the 1893-novel Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Classification and orbit