Messier 59
Messier 59
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M59 is one of the largest elliptical galaxies in the Virgo galaxy cluster. However, it is still considerably less massive, and at a magnitude of 9.8, less luminous than other elliptical galaxies in the cluster.
A supermassive black hole around 270 million times as massive as the Sun resides at the center of M59. The galaxy also has an inner disk of stars and around 2,200 globular clusters, an exceptionally high number of such clusters. The central region of the galaxy, the inner 200 light-years, rotates in the opposite direction than the rest of the galaxy and is the smallest region in a galaxy known to exhibit this behavior.
German astronomer Johann Gottfried Koehler discovered M59 and the nearby galaxy M60 in the spring of 1779 when observing the comet of that year (Comet Bode). While observing that same comet, Charles Messier observed and added M59, M60 and the neighboring M58 to his catalog
Naked Visibility:
Approximately 60 million light-years from Earth, M59 can be found near M58 and M60 in the constellation Virgo. It is best seen in May. Small telescopes might reveal an ellipsoidal shape with a bright center, but even larger scopes do not reveal much detail.
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