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
- James Edward Keeler
- Discovery site
- Mount Hamilton
- Discovery date
- 6 December 1899
- Pronunciation
- / h æ m ɪ l ˈ t oʊ n i ə /
- Named after
- Mount Hamilton
- Alternative designations
- 1899 FD
- Minor planet category
- main belt
- Observation arc
- 116.35 yr (42497 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.8911284 AU (432.50665 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.8064929 AU (419.84536 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.8488107 AU (426.17601 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.81 yr (1756.3 d )
- Mean anomaly
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Mount Hamilton
- Followed by
- 453 Tea
- Follows
- 451 Patientia
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +11.563
- Orbital period
- +1754.735482735096
Show 3 more facts
- P65
Article
452 Hamiltonia is an asteroid. It was discovered by James Edward Keeler on 6 December 1899, but was then lost until 1981. Its provisional name was 1899 FD. The asteroid is named for Mount Hamilton, the site of Lick Observatory where Keeler was working when he discovered the asteroid. It was the last asteroid discovery of the 1800s.
L. K. Kristensen at Aarhus University rediscovered 452 Hamiltonia along with 1537 Transylvania along with numerous other small objects in 1981. These rediscoveries left only nine numbered minor planets unobserved since their discoveries: 330 Adalberta (which never existed in the first place), 473 Nolli, 719 Albert, 724 Hapag, 843 Nicolaia, 878 Mildred, 1009 Sirene, 1026 Ingrid, and 1179 Mally. However, by the mid-1980s the only remaining lost asteroids of this group were 719 Albert (rediscovered in 2000), 724 Hapag (rediscovered in 1988), and 878 Mildred (rediscovered in 1991).