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
- 11 January 1929
- Named after
- Carolina Otero , (Spanish courtesan)
- Alternative designations
- 1929 AC · 1926 GD, 1948 RN 1 · 1949 YO
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Flora
- Observation arc
- 90.71 yr (33,133 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.6052 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.9394 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.2723 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.43 yr (1,251 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 291.09 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- La Belle Otero
- Followed by
- Q136222
- Follows
- 1125 China
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +10.974
- Orbital period
- +1250.83255850848
- Image
- 1126Otero (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 4 more facts
Article
1126 Otero, provisional designation 1929 AC, is a rare-type Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 10 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 11 January 1929, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany. It was named after Spanish courtesan Carolina Otero.
Classification and orbit