Its morphology is peculiar, with an S-shaped envelope that points to another galaxy of the group, located to the northwest.

Along the edges of the dust lanes knots of elevated ultraviolet emission indicate locations of where new stars are formed.

[5] In the centre of 3C 285 lies a supermassive black hole whose mass is estimated to be 107.70±0.10 (40-63 million) M☉ based on stellar velocity dispersion.

A blue star forming region, named 3C 285/09.6, has been detected within the eastern radio lobe, and it has been suggested that the star formation was induced by the compression of a region of dense intergalactic gas by the radio jet.

[7] The gas mass of the region is estimated to be less than 6.2×108 M☉ based on CO imaging and so it is estimated to be depleted if star formation continues at the current rate in less than a bilion years.