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
- M. F. Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 4 January 1930
- Named after
- Katharina Bohm-Waltz , (German philanthropist)
- Alternative designations
- 1930 AA · 1949 SU
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) , Flora
- Observation arc
- 87.83 yr (32,079 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.6457 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.8946 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.2701 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.42 yr (1,249 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 284.92 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q136419
- Follows
- 1140 Crimea
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +5.642
- Orbital period
- +1250.262637672049
Show 3 more facts
Article
1141 Bohmia, provisional designation 1930 AA, is a Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 6 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by German astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory on 4 January 1930. The asteroid was named after German philanthropist Katharina Bohm-Waltz.
Orbit and classification