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
- Friedrich Karl Arnold Schwassmann
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg (024)
- Discovery date
- 28 March 1900
- Pronunciation
- / m ə ˈ θ iː s ɪ s /
- Named after
- mathematics
- Alternative designations
- 1900 FC
- Minor planet category
- main belt
- Observation arc
- 116.05 yr (42387 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.9158 AU (436.20 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.3409 AU (350.19 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.6284 AU (393.20 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.26 yr (1556.4 d )
- Mean anomaly
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- mathematics
- Followed by
- Q154442
- Follows
- 453 Tea
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +81.743
- Mass
- +586000000000000000
- Orbital period
- +1554.849156381765
Show 4 more facts
Article
454 Mathesis is a main-belt asteroid that was discovered by German astronomer Friedrich Karl Arnold Schwassmann on March 28, 1900. Its provisional name was 1900 FC.
Photometric observations of this asteroid at the Altimira Observatory in 2004 gave a light curve with a period of 8.37784 ± 0.00003 hours and a brightness variation of 0.32 in magnitude. This differs from periods of 7.075 hours reported in 1994 and 7.745 hours in 1998.