NGC 6340

NGC 6340 is an unbarred [spiral galaxy] in the northern constellation of Draco. It was discovered by German-British astronomer William Herschel on June 6, 1788. The galaxy is located approximately away, and is receding with a heliocentric radial velocity of. It is the largest member of a triplet of galaxies known as the NGC 6340 group.
The morphological classification of NGC 6340 is SA0/a, indicating a lenticular or spiral galaxy with no central bar, no ring structure, and tightly wound spiral arms. It is being viewed nearly face on, with an inclination of about 20° to the plane of the sky. There is a prominent central bulge with little in the way of spiral structure in the outer disk. The nucleus is chemically distinct, having a higher metallicity than the surroundings. There is a polar ring orbiting the nucleus with a radius of about.
Velocity measurements show that there are separate components with the inner and outer parts of the galaxy. This may have been created through a merger of two galaxy, with one possibly elliptical and the other a spiral.