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
- Discovery date
- 14 March 1904
- Alternative designations
- 1904 NN
- Observation arc
- 112.10 yr (40943 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.9726 AU (444.69 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.2965 AU (343.55 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.6345 AU (394.12 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.28 yr (1561.9 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 195.412 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 13 49.764 / day
- Inclination
- 8.2284°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 326.697°
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q487990
- Follows
- Q155140
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +65.527
- Orbital period
- +1563.592025067284
Show 4 more facts
Article
524 Fidelio is a large minor planet with a diameter of 71 km, orbiting the Sun near the center of the main asteroid belt. Fidelio contains both metals and carbon (Spectral class XC). Concerning its name, the Catalogue of Minor Planet Names and Discovery Circumstances notes, "This is the name of Leonora when disguised as a man in the opera Fidelio (composed 1805) by the German composer Ludwig van Beethoven. The name dates from a period when Max Wolf assigned the names of female operatic characters to asteroids he had newly discovered.
524 Fidelio is also the name of a song on the album Valentina by The Wedding Present.