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-Königstuhl State Observatory
- Discovery date
- 4 October 1907
- Pronunciation
- / æ n t ɪ ˈ k l iː ə /
- Named after
- Anticlea
- Alternative designations
- 1907 AN
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Aphelion
- 3.3185 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.7319 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.02523 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 1921.93 days (5.26 years)
- Mean anomaly
- 86.86°
- Inclination
- 10.767°
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Anticlea
- Followed by
- 652 Jubilatrix
- Follows
- Q156162
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +31.895
- Orbital period
- +1918.675412191115
Show 4 more facts
- P61
- August Kopff
- P65
Article
651 Antikleia is a main-belt asteroid discovered on 4 October 1907 by August Kopff at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory. It is named for Anticlea the mother of Odysseus. The name may have been inspired by the asteroid's provisional designation 1907 AN.
Antikleia 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.