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
- 4 October 1907
- Alternative designations
- 1907 AM
- Observation arc
- 108.51 yr (39635 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.9093 AU (435.23 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.0076 AU (300.33 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.4584 AU (367.77 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.85 yr (1408.0 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 84.6795 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 15 20.484 / day
- Inclination
- 2.5576°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 215.571°
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q156176
- Follows
- Q156142
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +18.609
- Orbital period
- +1407.849997041077
Show 3 more facts
Article
650 Amalasuntha is a minor planet orbiting the Sun that was discovered by German astronomer August Kopff on October 4, 1907, at Heidelberg. It was named after Amalasuntha, the queen of the Ostrogoths from 526 to 534 AD. The name may have been inspired by the asteroid's provisional designation 1907 AM.
Photometric observations of this asteroid during 2007 at the Organ Mesa Observatory in Las Cruces, New Mexico, were used to create a light curve plot. This showed a rotation period of 16.582 ± 0.001 hours and a brightness variation of 0.44 ± 0.03 magnitude during each cycle.