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
- 31 August 1935
- Named after
- Helene Nowacki , ( ARI -astronomer)
- Alternative designations
- 1935 QG
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) , Flora
- Observation arc
- 81.46 yr (29,754 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.6343 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.8665 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.2504 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.38 yr (1,233 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 130.52 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 17 31.2 / day
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q138468
- Follows
- Q138454
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Orbital period
- +1232.723719175131
Show 3 more facts
via Wikidata · CC0
Article
1370 Hella, provisional designation 1935 QG, is a stony Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 5.4 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 31 August 1935, by astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in southwest Germany. The asteroid was named for Helene Nowacki, an astronomer at the Astronomical Calculation Institute.
Orbit and classification