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
- Karl Theodor Robert Luther
- Discovery date
- 4 April 1858
- Pronunciation
- / k ə ˈ l ɪ p s oʊ /
- Named after
- Calypso
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Adjectives
- Kalypsonian / k æ l ɪ p ˈ s oʊ n i ə n / , Kalypsoian / k æ l ɪ p ˈ s oʊ . i ə n /
- Aphelion
- 471.807 million km (3.154 AU)
- Perihelion
- 311.998 million km (2.086 AU)
- Semi major axis
- 391.903 million km (2.620 AU )
- Orbital period sidereal
- 1548.736 d (4.24 a )
- Mean anomaly
- 98.113°
- Inclination
- 5.153°
- Longitude of ascending node
Article
53 Kalypso is a large and very dark main belt asteroid that was discovered by German astronomer Robert Luther on April 4, 1858, at Düsseldorf. It is named after Calypso, a sea nymph in Greek mythology, a name it shares with Calypso, a moon of Saturn.
The orbit of 53 Kalypso places it in a mean motion resonance with the planets Jupiter and Saturn. The computed Lyapunov time for this asteroid is 19,000 years, indicating that it occupies a chaotic orbit that will change randomly over time because of gravitational perturbations of the planets.