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
- C. Jackson
- Discovery site
- Johannesburg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 5 July 1937
- Named after
- Somalia (African country)
- Alternative designations
- 1937 NK · 1929 RQ, 1954 UR 1 · 1957 HT, 1962 VF
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) , background · Astraea
- Observation arc
- 79.73 yr (29,122 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.0674 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.0508 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.5591 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.09 yr (1,495 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 184.53 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Somalia
- Country
- Somalia
- Followed by
- 1431 Luanda
- Follows
- Q139089
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +9.352
- Orbital period
- +1495.613685828575
- Image
- 001430-asteroid shape model (1430) Somalia.png
Show 3 more facts
Article
1430 Somalia, provisional designation 1937 NK, is a stony background asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 10 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 5 July 1937, by astronomer Cyril Jackson at the Union Observatory in Johannesburg. It was named for the African country of Somalia.
Orbit and classification