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
- 10 October 1920
- Named after
- Name picked from the almanac , Lahrer Hinkender Bote
- Alternative designations
- A920 TE · 1947 BG, 1947 EB · 1954 DB, 1963 PC · 1920 HT
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , Cybele
- Observation arc
- 99.24 yr (36,248 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.9375 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.7940 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.3657 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 6.17 yr (2,255 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 41.359 °
- Mean motion
Article
940 Kordula (prov. designation: A920 TE or 1920 HT) is a large and dark Cybele asteroid from the outermost region of the asteroid belt, approximately 80 kilometers (50 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 10 October 1920, by astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in Germany. The carbonaceous F-type asteroid (FC) has a rotation period of 15.6 hours. It was named "Kordula", a common German female name unrelated to the discoverer's contemporaries, that was taken from the almanac Lahrer Hinkender Bote.
Orbit and classification