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
- F. Kaiser
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 26 September 1913
- Pronunciation
- / ɡ ɪ ˈ d eɪ n i ə /
- Named after
- City of Gdańsk
- Alternative designations
- A913 SF · A902 WD, A908 YE · A918 TA, 1913 SU
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) background
- Observation arc
- 117.43 yr (42,893 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.5027 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.9000 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.2013 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.73 yr (2,092 d)
- Mean anomaly
Article
764 Gedania (prov. designation: A913 SF or 1913 SU) is a large background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 60 kilometers (37 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 26 September 1913, by German astronomer Franz Kaiser at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in southwest Germany. The carbonaceous C-type asteroid has a rotation period of 24.98 hours. It was named after the Polish city of Gdańsk where the discoverer was an assistant at the observatory during the 1920s.
Orbit and classification