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
- Joel Hastings Metcalf
- Discovery site
- Winchester, Massachusetts
- Discovery date
- 7 December 1912
- Alternative designations
- 1912 QB
- Observation arc
- 100.96 yr (36874 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.2248 AU (482.42 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 1.9562 AU (292.64 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.5905 AU (387.53 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.17 yr (1,522.9 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 24.8306 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 14 11.004 / day
- Inclination
- 12.368°
- Longitude of ascending node
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q156848
- Follows
- Q114631
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +47.804
- Orbital period
- +1524.779546653539
Show 4 more facts
- P65
- Winchester
- P720
Article
737 Arequipa is a minor planet orbiting the Sun. It was discovered by American astronomer Joel Hastings Metcalf on 7 December 1912 from Winchester, Massachusetts. This stony S-type asteroid was named after the Peruvian city of Arequipa, where Harvard's Boyden Observatory was located prior to 1927. It is orbiting at a distance of 2.59 AU from the Sun, with an orbital eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.245 and a period of 4.17 yr. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 12.4° to the ecliptic.
The rotation period of this asteroid has proven to be a challenge to determine, most likely because it has a complex shape and a rotation axis with a low inclination. However, during the 2015 apparition, photometric measurements of the asteroid were taken from close to the equatorial perspective. The resulting light curve displayed a rotation period of 7.0259±0.0003 h.