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
- Y. Väisälä
- Discovery site
- Turku Obs.
- Discovery date
- 26 January 1938
- Named after
- Utra (Finnish town)
- Alternative designations
- 1938 BB · 1936 SB, 1951 KO · A918 FA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle )
- Observation arc
- 98.67 yr (36,038 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.6404 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.4299 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.5352 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.04 yr (1,474 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 285.64 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 14 39.12 / day
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q139267
- Follows
- 1446 Sillanpää
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +11.834
- Orbital period
- +1473.471756272294
Show 3 more facts
- P61
- Yrjö Väisälä
- P6259
Article
1447 Utra, provisional designation 1938 BB, is a stony asteroid, slow rotator and suspected tumbler from the central region of the asteroid belt, approximately 12 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 26 January 1938, by Finnish astronomer Yrjö Väisälä at Turku Observatory in Southwest Finland. The asteroid was named for the Finnish town of Utra (now a part of Joensuu).
Orbit and classification