Discovered 1779 by Johann Gottfried Koehler.

M59 is a member of the Virgo cluster of galaxies, and one of the larger elliptical galaxies there, although it is considerably less luminous and massive than the greatest ellipticals in this cluster, M49, M60 and, above all, M87. It is quite flattened: Various sources give values of its ellipticity as E3-E5 (the present author estimates E5, i.e. its larger axis is about double as long as its shorter one, but our values for its dimension are closer to E3). At an assumed distance of 60 million light years, its longer axis of 5 arc minutes corresponds to almost 90,000 light years linear extension.

M59 was discovered by Johann Gottfried Koehler on April 11, 1779, together with nearby M60, on the occasion of observing the comet of that year. Charles Messier, also when observing that comet, found both galaxies four days later, on April 15 of that year, and in addition nearby M58 which Koehler missed. Messier described M59 as equally faint as M58, and fainter than M60.