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NGC 959
Spiral galaxy in the northern constellation of Triangulum From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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NGC 959 is a spiral galaxy in the northern constellation of Triangulum.[10] It was discovered on 9 November 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]
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 plane of the sky,[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]
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