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. H. Metcalf
- Discovery site
- Winchester Obs. ( 799 )
- Discovery date
- 20 March 1914
- Named after
- Edward Charles Pickering William Henry Pickering (American astronomers)
- Alternative designations
- A914 FC · 1914 UM
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) background
- Observation arc
- 105.82 yr (38,652 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.8458 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.3455 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.0956 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.45 yr (1,989 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 97.354 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- William Henry Pickering
- Followed by
- Q157076
- Follows
- 783 Nora
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +75.596
- Orbital period
- +1991.637420255386
Show 4 more facts
- P65
Article
784 Pickeringia (prov. designation: A914 FC or 1914 UM) is a large background asteroid, approximately 76 kilometers (47 miles) in diameter, located in the outer region of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 20 March 1914, by American astronomer Joel Hastings Metcalf at the Winchester Observatory (799) in Massachusetts. The dark C-type asteroid has a rotation period of 13.1 hours and an irregular shape. It was named after American astronomers Edward Charles Pickering (1846–1919) and his brother William Henry Pickering (1858–1938).
Orbit and classification