NGC 959

NGC 959 is a spiral galaxy in the northern constellation of Triangulum.^[10] It was discovered on November 9, 1876, by French astronomer Édouard Stephan.^[9] This galaxy is located at a distance of 36 million light years and is receding with a heliocentric radial velocity of 596 km/s.^[2] It is a member of the NGC 1023 Group of galaxies.^[4]

NGC 959
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
Constellation	Triangulum
Right ascension	02h 32m 23.923s[1]
Declination	+35° 29′ 40.46″[1]
Heliocentric radial velocity	596 km/s[2]
Distance	36 Mly (11.0 Mpc)[2][3]
Group or cluster	NGC 1023 Group[4]
Apparent magnitude (V)	12.38±0.14[3]
Apparent magnitude (B)	12.95±0.14[3]
Characteristics
Type	Sdm:[3] or SBcd[5]
Mass	6.3×108[6] (stellar) M☉
Size	21.8 kly (6.69 kpc)[7]
Apparent size (V)	2′.3 × 1′.4[3] (D25)
Other designations
IRAS 02293+3516, NGC 959, UGC 2002, LEDA 9665, MCG +06-06-051, PGC 9665[8][9]

The morphological class of this galaxy is Sdm:,^[3] indicating it is a spiral (S) with disorganized, irregular arms and no central bulge (dm). The ':' suffix indicates some uncertainty about the classification. It has a visual magnitude of 12.4.^[3] The galactic plane is inclined at an angle of 50° to the line of sight from the Earth,^[11] giving it an elliptical profile with the major axis aligned along a position angle of 65°. The size of the D₂₅ ellipse (where the brightness of the galaxy drops to magnitude 25) is 2.3 × 1.4 arcminutes.^[3]

When images of NGC 959 are corrected for the effects of extinction from dust, a central bar feature can be discerned. The galaxy then shows a non-negligible bulge or central condensation, and may instead have a morphological type of SBcd.^[5] It displays a cuspy central density profile and bulge-like monotonic decrease in ellipticity toward the core.^[6]