The star was first identified to have peculiar hydrogen emission lines in 1925, based on observations with the Mount Wilson Observatory by Paul W. Merrill, Milton L. Humason and Cora G. Burwell.

[12] In 1984 it was first considered that HD 163296 is a Herbig Ae star due to the H-alpha and NaD lines having a P Cygni profile.

[14] Later in 1989 it was found that magnesium and calcium lines have short-term variability from observations with the International Ultraviolet Explorer, showing that it is similar to the Herbig Ae star AB Aurigae.

[15] Observations with Hubble STIS showed Herbig-Haro nebulosity that is often associated with Herbig Ae stars.

[16] Additionally a jet was detected with STIS in Lyman alpha and silicon emission, which had a velocity of 335-380 km/s.

[25][5] The star is suspected to co-move with the young stellar object candidate 2MASS J17564004-2159530, with a separation of 30,600 AU.

[32] Observations with STIS revealed that the disk is much larger with a radius of 450 AU and has an inclination of about 60±5° and has a cleared central zone.

[16] An outer ring was discovered in scattered light with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) instrument NACO.

[34] Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) dust observations showed multiple rings.

[8] Observations with the Submillimeter Array, showed that the carbon monoxide ice-line begins at around 155 AU.

[44] Another analysis of ALMA data found that N2H+ emission is a better tracer of the CO snowline and this line is located at 90 AU (at 25 Kelvin).

The abundance of methanol is lower when compared to TW Hydrae, likely due to a difference in stellar radiation.

[49] Carbon emission localized at the position of the proposed planet at the D45 gap could represent protoplanet inflow/outflow or disk winds.

[10] A point-like source at 67 AU was identified from Keck observations as a potential protoplanet with a mass of 6-7 MJ.

[52] The point-like Keck source was not detected SPHERE imaging, excluding it as a massive planet.

[11] D270 gap: Another candidate was proposed from perturbation of the gas of the disk, suggesting a 2 MJ planet at around 260 AU.

[53] The spiral structure of the CO gas is explained with the planet, producing a planetary wake generated by Lindblad resonances.