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 Obs.
- Discovery date
- 29 August 1916
- Named after
- Max Wolf , (German astronomer)
- Alternative designations
- 1916 ZW · 1928 DK, 1940 RA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) , Flora
- Observation arc
- 100.68 yr (36,773 d )
- Aphelion
- 2.6314 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.9172 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.2743 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.43 yr (1,253 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 145.31 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 17 14.64 / day
Article
827 Wolfiana, provisional designation 1916 ZW, is a Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 8 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered at Vienna Observatory on 29 August 1916, by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa, who named it after German astronomer Max Wolf. The assumed stony asteroid has a rotation period of 4.0654 hours.
Orbit and classification