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
- M. F. Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg
- Discovery date
- 27 December 1904
- Pronunciation
- German: [ ˈkʊndʁyː ]
- Alternative designations
- 1904 PP; 1932 CL;, 1957 UB
- Observation arc
- 111.31 yr (40655 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.4766 AU (370.49 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 1.9843 AU (296.85 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.2305 AU (333.68 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.33 yr (1216.7 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 191.00 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 17 45.168 / day
- Inclination
- 5.3899°
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q155501
- Follows
- Q155464
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +9.01
- Orbital period
- +1216.691129396106
- Image
- 553Kundry (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 5 more facts
Article
553 Kundry is an S-type asteroid belonging to the Flora family in the Main Belt. Its rotation period is 12.605 hours.
Like a number of asteroids discovered by Max Wolf around this time (1904), it is named after a female character in opera, in this case from Richard Wagner's Parsifal.