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
- Max Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Observatory
- Discovery date
- 10 January 1904
- Pronunciation
- German: [ ˈhɛlɡaː ]
- Alternative designations
- 1904 NC
- Observation arc
- 114.65 yr (41876 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.9372 AU (589.00 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 3.3284 AU (497.92 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.6328 AU (543.46 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 6.92 yr (2529.1 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 200.06 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 8 32.424 / day
- Inclination
- 4.4174°
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q155140
- Follows
- 521 Brixia
- Parent body
- Sun
- Diameter
- +101.22
- Orbital period
- +2523.123765128066
Show 4 more facts
Article
522 Helga, provisional designation 1904 NC is a large main belt asteroid (minor planet). It was discovered in 1904 by Max Wolf in Heidelberg. Helga is notable for being the first such object to be shown to be in a stable but chaotic orbit in a 7:12 resonance with Jupiter, its Lyapunov time being relatively short, at 6,900 yr. Despite this, its orbit appears to be stable, as the eccentricity and precession rates are such that it avoids close encounters with Jupiter. It forms part of the Cybele asteroid group.
522 Helga was "named by Lt. Th. Lassen, orbit computer" according to Paul Herget's The Names of the Minor Planets (note that computer does not refer to a personal computer, i.e. a machine, but rather to a person actually doing the necessary calculations).