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
- Max Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Observatory
- Discovery date
- 11 March 1918
- Minor planet category
- main-belt Eos
- Observation arc
- 95.39 yr (34842 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.2017 AU (478.97 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.8415 AU (425.08 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.0216 AU (452.02 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.25 yr (1918.5 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 174.471 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 15.54 / day
- Inclination
- 10.872°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 160.683°
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 891 Gunhild
- Follows
- 889 Erynia
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +28.376
- Orbital period
- +1918.749582557679
Show 4 more facts
Article
890 Waltraut is an Eoan asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt that was discovered by German astronomer Max Wolf on 11 March 1918. It was named for a character in Richard Wagner's opera, Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods).
This is a member of the dynamic Eos family of asteroids that most likely formed as the result of a collisional breakup of a parent body.