lenticular galaxy
A lenticular galaxy (denoted S0) is a Galaxy morphological classification, type of galaxy intermediate between an elliptical galaxy, elliptical (denoted E) and a spiral galaxy in galaxy morphological classification schemes. It contains a large-s ...
in the constellation
Cetus
Cetus () is a constellation, sometimes called 'the whale' in English. The Cetus (mythology), Cetus was a sea monster in Greek mythology which both Perseus and Heracles needed to slay. Cetus is in the region of the sky that contains other water- ...
. It is a probable member of the
Sculptor Group
The Sculptor Group is a loose group of galaxies visible near the south galactic pole. The group is one of the closest groups of galaxies to the Local Group; the distance to the center of the group from the Milky Way is approximately .
The Scul ...
. It is approximately 17 million
light-year
A light-year, alternatively spelled light year (ly or lyr), is a unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equal to exactly , which is approximately 9.46 trillion km or 5.88 trillion mi. As defined by the International Astr ...
s away.
NGC 59 has a stellar mass of 5x108 and it is a low-luminosity, low-
metallicity
In astronomy, metallicity is the Abundance of the chemical elements, abundance of Chemical element, elements present in an object that are heavier than hydrogen and helium. Most of the normal currently detectable (i.e. non-Dark matter, dark) matt ...
galaxy. It has a young (2 to 6 billion years old) low-metallicity population at its center and an older (about 8 billion years old) overlaying population that has also a low metallicity.