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
- Y. Väisälä
- Discovery site
- Turku Obs.
- Discovery date
- 15 December 1938
- Named after
- Kuopio (Finnish town)
- Alternative designations
- 1938 XD · 1935 EF, 1953 LH
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) , Eunomia
- Observation arc
- 82.34 yr (30,075 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.8995 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.3499 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.6247 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.25 yr (1,553 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 154.93 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 13 54.48 / day
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Kuopio
- Followed by
- Q140190
- Follows
- Q140164
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +22.985
- Orbital period
- +1555.346861355882
- Image
- 1503Kuopio (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 3 more facts
- P61
- Yrjö Väisälä
Article
1503 Kuopio (provisional designation 1938 XD) is a stony Eunomian asteroid from the central region of the asteroid belt, approximately 19 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 15 December 1938, by astronomer Yrjö Väisälä at the Turku Observatory in Southwest Finland. The asteroid was named for the Finnish town of Kuopio.
Orbit and classification