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
- J. Palisa
- Discovery site
- Vienna Observatory
- Discovery date
- 18 March 1914
- Alternative designations
- 1914 UK
- Observation arc
- 100.50 yr (36708 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.2639 AU (338.67 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.0953 AU (313.45 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.1796 AU (326.06 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.22 yr (1175.3 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 310.813 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 18 22.68 / day
- Inclination
- 5.2605°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 80.496°
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 783 Nora
- Follows
- 781 Kartvelia
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +14.158
- Orbital period
- +1175.532313763232
Show 4 more facts
- P720
Article
782 Montefiore is a minor planet, specifically an asteroid orbiting in the asteroid belt that was discovered by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa on 18 March 1914 and named for Clarice Sebag-Montefiore, wife of Alfons von Rothschild of Vienna. It is orbiting 2.18 AU from the Sun with an eccentricity of 0.04 and a period of 3.22 yr. The orbital plane of this asteroid is inclined by an angle of 5.26° to the plane of the ecliptic.
10μ radiometric data collected from Kitt Peak in 1975 gave a diameter estimate of 15 km. Photometric light curve studies from 1997 onward give a consistent rotation period of 4.07 hours.