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
- August Kopff
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg
- Discovery date
- 11 September 1907
- Alternative designations
- 1907 AE
- Observation arc
- 108.44 yr (39606 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.8302 AU (572.99 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.5847 AU (386.67 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.2075 AU (479.84 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.74 yr (2098.2 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 327.76 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 17.688 / day
- Inclination
- 9.8005°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 291.226°
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q156142
- Follows
- Q731286
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +68.27
- Orbital period
- +2087.047162017685
Show 4 more facts
Article
648 Pippa is a minor planet orbiting the Sun. Photometric measurements made from the Oakley Southern Sky Observatory during 2012 gave a light curve with a period of 9.263 ± 0.001 hours and a variation in brightness of 0.31 ± 0.03 in magnitude. This is inconsistent with a period estimate of 5.2 ± 0.3 made in 2004. It was named after Pippa, the title character in Gerhardt Hauptmann's novel Und Pippa tanzt.
References