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
- 2 September 1929
- Named after
- Granada , (Spanish city and province)
- Alternative designations
- 1929 RD · 1931 AR, 1940 RS
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner )
- Observation arc
- 87.84 yr (32,083 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.5184 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.2409 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.3797 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.67 yr (1,341 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 35.176 °
- Mean motion
Article
1159 Granada, provisional designation 1929 RD, is a dark background asteroid and relatively slow rotator from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 30 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 2 September 1929, by astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany. The asteroid was named for the Spanish city and province of Granada.
Orbit and classification