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
- Max Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 25 September 1892
- Named after
- California
- Alternative designations
- 1892 J; 1979 FY2
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 113.45 yr (41,439 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.62698 AU (392.991 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 1.77187 AU (265.068 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.19943 AU (329.030 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.26 yr (1,191.4 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 15.6325 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 18 7.783 / day
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- California
- Followed by
- 342 Endymion
- Follows
- 340 Eduarda
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +15.83
- Mass
- +5000000000000000
- Orbital period
- +1191.312017371606
- Image
- 000341-asteroid shape model (341) California.png
Show 4 more facts
Article
341 California is an asteroid belonging to the Flora family in the Main Belt. It was discovered by Max Wolf on 25 September 1892 in Heidelberg, and is named for the U.S. state of California. This object is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 2.20 AU with a period of 3.26 yr and an eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.19. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 5.7° to the plane of the ecliptic.
The very slow rotation rate of this asteroid favors collecting photometric data for an extended period in order to measure the period. Data collected from June to December 2016 was used to produce a light curve showing a rotation period of 317.88±0.06 h with a brightness variation of 0.9 in magnitude. It is tumbling with a period of 250±2 h. It has an unusually high albedo.