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
- A. Kopff
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg
- Discovery date
- 3 November 1905
- Pronunciation
- / s aɪ ˈ d oʊ n i ə /
- Alternative designations
- 1905 SD
- Observation arc
- 109.22 yr (39891 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.2535 AU (486.72 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.7680 AU (414.09 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.0107 AU (450.39 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.22 yr (1908.1 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 161.100 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 19.212 / day
- Inclination
- 11.009°
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q155663
- Follows
- 578 Happelia
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +85.57
- Orbital period
- +1909.195883123857
Show 4 more facts
Article
579 Sidonia is a minor planet orbiting the Sun that was discovered by the German astronomer August Kopff on November 3, 1905. It was named after a character in Christoph Willibald Gluck's opera Armide. The name may have been inspired by the asteroid's provisional designation 1905 SD.
This is a member of the dynamic Eos family of asteroids that most likely formed as the result of a collisional breakup of a parent body.