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
- K. Reinmuth
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 30 September 1919
- Named after
- Name picked from the almanac , Lahrer Hinkender Bote
- Alternative designations
- A919 SK · A915 VD, 1919 GB · 1915 VD
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) , background
- Observation arc
- 99.61 yr (36,382 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.1271 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.1071 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.6171 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.23 yr (1,546 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 268.52 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q158034
- Follows
- Q158016
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +34.553
- Orbital period
- +1544.849454775515
Show 3 more facts
Article
923 Herluga (prov. designation: A919 SK or 1919 GB) is a three-body resonant background asteroid, approximately 34 kilometers (21 miles) in diameter, located in the central region of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 30 September 1919, by astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany. The carbonaceous C-type asteroid has a rotation period of 19.7 hours. It was named "Herluga", a common German female name unrelated to the discoverer's contemporaries, that was taken from the almanac Lahrer Hinkender Bote.
Orbit and classification