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
- Johann Palisa
- Discovery date
- 20 March 1890
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ b r uː n ə /
- Named after
- Brno
- Alternative designations
- A890 FA
- Minor planet category
- main belt
- Observation arc
- 100.87 yr (36843 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.93884 AU (439.644 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 1.73612 AU (259.720 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.33748 AU (349.682 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.57 yr (1305.3 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 171.767 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 16 32.851 / day
Article
290 Bruna is a main belt asteroid that was discovered on 20 March 1890 by Johann Palisa, an Austrian astronomer at the Vienna Observatory.
Photometric observations of this asteroid at the Organ Mesa Observatory in Las Cruces, New Mexico, during 2008 gave a light curve with a period of 13.807 ± 0.001 hours and a brightness variation of 0.54 ± 0.04 in magnitude. Changes in the brightness of the minimum with phase angle is attributed to changes in the shadows across surface features.