[14][17] The HD 100546 system as a whole has evidence for three protoplanets, thus it is considered an important evolutionary precursor to intermediate-mass stars with multiple super-jovian planets at moderate/wide separations like HR 8799.

In 2013, researchers reported that they had found what seems to be a planet in the process of being formed, embedded in the star's large disc of gas and dust.

[21] Despite the uncertainty of the planet's properties, a 2017 study calculated HD 100546 b as a very highly reddened substellar object with a good-fit effective temperature of 2,630 K and a planetary mass and radius of 25 MJup and 3.4 RJup, making it still one of the largest exoplanets discovered by size.

[25] In April 2003, another planetary companion candidate was proposed and evidence was later gathered using the UVES echelle spectrograph at the VLT in Chile in 2005.

[18] The presence of disturbance, possibly created by HD 100546 c, is also confirmed by the detection of sulphur monoxide, indicating a shockwaves propagating through the gas disk.

[12] Coronagraphic optical observations with the Hubble Space Telescope[1][17] show complex spiral patterns in the circumstellar disk.

[27] Spectroscopic analysis of mid-IR data taken from OSCIR on the 4 m Blanco Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory indicates the presence of a small particles (10–18 μm) containing silicates.