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
- B. Jekhovsky
- Discovery site
- Algiers Obs.
- Discovery date
- 10 November 1922
- Pronunciation
- / ə ˈ p ɛ l ə /
- Named after
- Paul Appell , (French mathematician)
- Alternative designations
- 1922 MT · 1955 QJ 1
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Themis
- Observation arc
- 76.56 yr (27,964 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.8829 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.4017 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1423 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.57 yr (2,035 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 308.57 °
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Paul Appell
- Followed by
- Q158489
- Follows
- Q158481
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +20.431
- Orbital period
- +2031.245012369684
Show 3 more facts
- P65
Article
988 Appella, provisional designation 1922 MT, is a dark Themistian asteroid and slow rotator from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 26 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 10 November 1922, by Russian–French astronomer Benjamin Jekhowsky at Algiers Observatory in Algeria, North Africa. The asteroid was later named after French mathematician Paul Émile Appel.
Classification and orbit