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. E. Wood
- Discovery site
- Johannesburg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 19 July 1928
- Named after
- Pongola River , (South Africa river)
- Alternative designations
- 1928 OC · 1927 FD, 1929 SQ · 1932 FA, 1933 MB · 1979 NE
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background
- Observation arc
- 90.59 yr (33,087 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.2336 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.7909 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.0123 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.23 yr (1,910 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 89.261 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Pongola River
- Followed by
- Q137825
- Follows
- Q137809
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +24.11
- Orbital period
- +1914.22742552611
Show 3 more facts
- P65
Article
1305 Phongolo, provisional designation 1928 OC, is a background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 25 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 19 July 1928, by English astronomer Harry Edwin Wood at the Union Observatory in Johannesburg, South Africa. The asteroid was named for the South African Pongola River.
Orbit and classification