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
- Vincenzo Cerulli
- Discovery date
- 2 October 1910
- Pronunciation
- / ɪ n t ər ˈ æ m n i ə /
- Named after
- Teramo
- Alternative designations
- 1910 KU; 1952 MW
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Adjectives
- Interamnian / ɪ n t ər ˈ æ m n i ə n /
- Observation arc
- 110.8 yr
- Aphelion
- 3.53 AU (528 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.58 AU (386 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.056 AU (457.2 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.34 yr (1951 d )
- Average orbital speed
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Teramo
- Followed by
- 705 Erminia
- Follows
- 703 Noëmi
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +306.313
- Orbital period
- +1951.529351312479
- Image
- 704 Interamnia VLT (2021), deconvolved.pdf
Show 4 more facts
Article
704 Interamnia is a large F-type asteroid. With a mean diameter of around 330 kilometres, it is the fifth-largest asteroid, after Ceres, Vesta, Pallas and Hygiea. Its mean distance from the Sun is 3.067 AU. It was discovered on 2 October 1910 by Vincenzo Cerulli, and named after the Latin name for Teramo, Italy, where Cerulli worked. Its mass is probably between fifth and tenth highest in the asteroid belt, with a mass estimated to be 1.2% of the mass of the entire asteroid belt. Observations by the Very Large Telescope's SPHERE imager in 2017–2019, combined with occultation results, indicate that the shape of Interamnia may be consistent with hydrostatic equilibrium for a body of its density with a rotational period of 7.6 hours. (Its current period is 8.7 hours.) This suggests that Interamnia may have formed as an equilibrium body, and that impacts changed its rotational period after it fully solidified.
Characteristics