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
- A. Charlois
- Discovery site
- Nice Observatory
- Discovery date
- 28 December 1894
- Pronunciation
- / æ d ˈ m iː t iː /
- Named after
- Admete (Greek mythology)
- Alternative designations
- 1894 BN · 1951 LP, 1952 QC 1 · A907 RE
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · (outer)
- Observation arc
- 120.95 yr (44176 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.3515 AU (501.38 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.1269 AU (318.18 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.7392 AU (409.78 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.53 yr (1655.9 d )
- Mean anomaly
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Admete
- Followed by
- 399 Persephone
- Follows
- Q152419
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +49.771
- Orbital period
- +1653.380861557291
Show 5 more facts
- P65
Article
398 Admete, provisional designation 1894 BN, is a dark, carbonaceous asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, about 47 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 28 December 1894, by French astronomer Auguste Charlois at Nice Observatory in south-eastern France.
The dark C-type asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 2.1–3.4 AU once every four years and six months (1,656 days). Its orbit shows an eccentricity of 0.22, and it is tilted by ten degrees to the plane of the ecliptic. The body's surface has a low albedo of 0.06, a typical value for carbonaceous asteroids.