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
- 14 October 1922
- Named after
- A girl's name picked from a, popular German calendar
- Alternative designations
- 1922 MO
- Minor planet category
- Mars crosser
- Observation arc
- 94.37 yr (34,467 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.9380 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.6604 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.2992 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.49 yr (1,273 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 92.838 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 16 57.72 / day
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 986 Amelia
- Follows
- 984 Gretia
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- Mars-crossing asteroid
- Orbital period
- +1273.257684568584
Show 4 more facts
Article
985 Rosina, provisional designation 1922 MO, is a stony asteroid and sizable Mars-crosser on an eccentric orbit from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 8 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 14 October 1922, by astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in Germany. The asteroid's name is a common German female name, unrelated to the discoverer's contemporaries.
Orbit and classification