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
- H. van Gent
- Discovery site
- Johannesburg Obs. , (Leiden Southern Station)
- Discovery date
- 13 September 1929
- Named after
- Dutch city of Leiden , ( Lugdunum Batavorum )
- Alternative designations
- 1929 RC 1 · A908 BD
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Flora
- Observation arc
- 87.20 yr (31,848 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.5966 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.7751 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.1858 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.23 yr (1,180 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 67.197 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Leiden
- Followed by
- Q136323
- Follows
- 1132 Hollandia
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +8.275
- Orbital period
- +1180.571619407139
- Image
- Orbit of 1133 Lugduna.png
Show 3 more facts
Article
1133 Lugduna, provisional designation 1929 RC1, is a stony Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 9.5 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 13 September 1929, by Dutch astronomer Hendrik van Gent at the Leiden Southern Station annex to the Union Observatory in Johannesburg, South Africa. The asteroid was named in honor of the city of Leiden in the Netherlands.
Orbit and classification