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
- M. F. Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 23 June 1903
- Pronunciation
- / t ɔːr ɪ ˈ n ɛ n s ɪ s /
- Named after
- Turin (Italian city)
- Alternative designations
- 1903 LV · A909 GE
- Minor planet category
- Mars-crosser
- Observation arc
- 108.23 yr (39,532 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.7466 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.6323 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.1895 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.24 yr (1,183 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 30.908 °
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Turin
- Followed by
- Q155027
- Follows
- 511 Davida
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- Mars-crossing asteroid
- Diameter
- +23.09
- Orbital period
- +1182.938879453353
- Image
- 512Taurinensis (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 4 more facts
- P61
- Max Wolf
Article
512 Taurinensis, provisional designation 1903 LV, is a stony asteroid and large Mars-crosser on an eccentric orbit from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 20 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 23 June 1903, by astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in southwest Germany. The asteroid was named after the Italian city of Turin. It is the 4th-largest Mars-crossing asteroid.
Orbit and classification