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
- Taunton, Massachusetts
- Discovery date
- 30 September 1908
- Alternative designations
- 1908 EJ
- Observation arc
- 99.16 yr (36218 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.6327 AU (393.85 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.1142 AU (316.28 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.3734 AU (355.06 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.66 yr (1335.6 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 133.453 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 16 10.38 / day
- Inclination
- 8.1694°
- Longitude of ascending node
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Portland
- Followed by
- 758 Mancunia
- Follows
- 756 Lilliana
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +32.894
- Orbital period
- +1335.147406491775
Show 4 more facts
- P65
Article
757 Portlandia is a main-belt asteroid 32 km in diameter. It was discovered on 30 September 1908 from Taunton, Massachusetts by the amateur American astronomer Joel E. Metcalf. The asteroid was named for the city of Portland, Maine, where Hastings was a church minister at the time. In November 2015, amateur astronomers captured it with images of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Portlandia came to opposition in March 2016 at apparent magnitude 13.2.
This body is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 2.37 AU with a period of 3.66 years and an eccentricity of 0.109. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 8.2° to the plane of the ecliptic. 757 Portlandia is classified as an X-type asteroid and is a core member of the proposed Athor asteroid family, named after 161 Athor. This asteroid spans a girth of 32.89±0.24 km and is rotating with a period of 6.58 hours. During 2003, the asteroid was observed occulting a star. The resulting chords were used to determine a diameter estimate of 36.7 km.