[4] It was discovered in 1896 by Edward Charles Pickering and Williamina Fleming,[5] and independently by Gustav Gruss the same year.

[2] It looks like an ordinary star in smaller telescopes, and only detailed study of its spectrum reveals its nebular characteristics.

[7] IC 4997 is very young and very dense with a very high nebular temperature of around 20,000 K,[8] which is twice those measured in most nebulae.

[8] Its central star has a magnitude of around 14m[7] and a temperature of around 47,000--59 000 K.[9] The most characteristic feature of IC 4997 is its variability.

Variability could be related to the nebula expansion[11] or an episodic smoothly changing stellar wind.