NGC 596

NGC 596 is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Cetus. The galaxy lies 65 million light years away from Earth, which means, given its apparent dimensions, that NGC 596 is approximately 60,000 light years across. The galaxy shows an outer envelope and is a merger remnant. The surface brightness profile is smooth and featureless.^[2] The galaxy hosts a supermassive black hole, whose mass is estimated to be 170 million (10^8.24) ${\displaystyle {\begin{smallmatrix}M_{\odot }\end{smallmatrix}}}$.^[3]

NGC 596
SDSS image of NGC 596
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
Constellation	Cetus
Right ascension	01h 32m 52.1s[1]
Declination	−07° 01′ 55″[1]
Redshift	1876 ± 11 km/s[1]
Distance	67 ±13 Mly (20.6±4.0 Mpc)[1]
Apparent magnitude (V)	10.9
Characteristics
Type	E+ pec [1]
Apparent size (V)	3′.2 × 2′.1[1]
Other designations
MCG -01-05-005, PGC 5766[1]

NGC 596 belongs at the NGC 584 galaxy group, which also includes the galaxies NGC 584, which lies 25 minutes to the northwest,^[4] NGC 600, NGC 615 and NGC 636.^[5]

The galaxy is included in the Herschel 400 Catalogue. It lies about 2 and half degrees northeast from theta Ceti.^[6]