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
- 23 October 1922
- Named after
- Name picked from the almanac , Lahrer Hinkender Bote
- Alternative designations
- A922 UB · 1922 MR, A899 PJ
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background
- Observation arc
- 97.20 yr (35,503 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.8806 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.3963 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1384 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.56 yr (2,031 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 210.24 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q158484
- Follows
- 986 Amelia
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +52.651
- Orbital period
- +2027.106344238334
Show 3 more facts
Article
987 Wallia (provisional designation: A922 UB or 1922 MR) is a large background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 52 kilometers (32 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 23 October 1922, by astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg Observatory in southern Germany. The D/T-type asteroid has a rotation period of 10.1 hours and shows an unusual trinomial lightcurve. It was named after a common German female name, unrelated to the discoverer's contemporaries, and taken from the almanac Lahrer Hinkender Bote.
Orbit and classification