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
- 26 January 1905
- Pronunciation
- Italian: [ vjoˈletta ]
- Alternative designations
- 1905 PY
- Observation arc
- 111.25 yr (40634 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.6867 AU (401.92 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.1984 AU (328.88 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.4425 AU (365.39 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.82 yr (1394.3 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 79.8798°
- Mean motion
- 0° 15 29.484 / day
- Inclination
- 2.4895°
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q155550
- Follows
- Q155537
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +22.621
- Orbital period
- +1394.177676957656
Show 3 more facts
Article
557 Violetta is a minor planet orbiting the Sun that was discovered by German astronomer Max Wolf on 26 January 1905 in Heidelberg. In light of M. F. Wolf's penchant ca. 1905 for naming asteroids after operatic heroines, it is likely that 557 Violetta is named after the protagonist of Giuseppe Verdi's famous opera La Traviata.
Photometric observations of this asteroid made during 2008 at the Organ Mesa Observatory in Las Cruces, New Mexico, gave a light curve with a period of 5.0887 ± 0.0001 hours and a brightness variation of 0.25 ± 0.03 in magnitude.