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
- 20 April 1914
- Named after
- Fyodor Bredikhin (1831–1904) (Russian astronomer)
- Alternative designations
- A914 HD · 1914 UO
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) background
- Observation arc
- 105.79 yr (38,638 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.6852 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.6690 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1771 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.66 yr (2,068 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 267.56 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Fyodor Bredikhin
- Followed by
- 787 Moskva
- Follows
- Q157076
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +108.309
- Orbital period
- +2082.758940622705
Show 4 more facts
- P61
- Franz Kaiser
- P65
Article
786 Bredichina (prov. designation: A914 HD or 1914 UO) is a carbonaceous and very large background asteroid, approximately 104 kilometers (65 miles) in diameter, located in the outer region of the asteroid belt. It was discovered by German astronomer Franz Kaiser at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory on 20 April 1914. The elongated C-type asteroid has a longer than average rotation period of 29.4 hours. It was named after Russian astronomer Fyodor Bredikhin (1831–1904).
Orbit and classification