It is located 2.74 billion light years from Earth and is classified as a Seyfert 2 and LINER galaxy.

[2][3] Its luminosity at both radio and far infrared wavelengths is Lv(4.8 GHz) = 1026.4 W Hz−1 and vLv(60 μm) = 1012.2 Lʘ.

[9] It is also indicated to be significantly depolarized by interstellar medium since only the western lobe shows strong polarization.

[10] There is also detections of diffused nuclear emissions and a filamentary ionized gas structure in 3C 459 creating a single-sided triangular-shaped region with an outward expansion of up to ~ 80 kpc.

Both of them are found to have an offset of ~ 400 km s-1 from velocity point of view suggesting a dual active galactic nuclei (AGN) system in 3C 459.