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
- Auguste Charlois
- Discovery date
- 1 December 1894
- Pronunciation
- / iː ˈ oʊ l i ə /
- Named after
- Aeolis
- Alternative designations
- 1894 BL
- Minor planet category
- Main belt ( Aeolia clump )
- Observation arc
- 89.89 yr (32,831 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.17927 AU (475.612 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.30468 AU (344.775 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.74198 AU (410.194 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.54 yr (1,658.4 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 81.8407 °
- Mean motion
Article
396 Aeolia is a typical main belt asteroid. It was discovered by the French astronomer Auguste Charlois on 1 December 1894 from Nice, and may have been named for the ancient land of Aeolis. The asteroid is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 2.74 AU with a period of 4.54 years and an eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.16. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 2.5° to the plane of the ecliptic. This is the largest member of the eponymously named Aeolia asteroid family, a small group of asteroids with similar orbits that have an estimated age of less than 100 million years.
Analysis of the asteroid light curve based on photometry data collected during 2016 show a rotation period of 14.353±0.001 h with a brightness variation of 0.36±0.02 in magnitude. This rules out a previous estimate of 22.2 hours. It is a metallic Xe type asteroid in the SMASS classification.