NGC 959
NGC 959 is a spiral galaxy in the northern constellation of Triangulum. It was discovered on 9 November 1876 by French astronomer Édouard Stephan. This galaxy is located at a distance of 36 million light years and is receding with a heliocentric radial velocity of 596 km/s. It is a member of the NGC 1023 Group of galaxies.
The morphological class of this galaxy is Sdm:, indicating it is a spiral with disorganized, irregular arms and no central bulge. The ':' suffix indicates some uncertainty about the classification. It has a visual magnitude of 12.4. The galactic plane is inclined at an angle of 50° to the plane of the sky, giving it an elliptical profile with the major axis aligned along a position angle of 65°. The size of the D25 ellipse is arcminutes.
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. It displays a cuspy central density profile and bulge-like monotonic decrease in ellipticity toward the core.