It is located 1.45 billion light-years from Earth[1] and a prototype infrared-luminous low-redshift quasar with a projected luminosity of 2 x1046 erg s−1 according to Beichman who discovered it in 1986.

[8] A study made by Chandra X-ray spectrum with the HETGS grating spectrometer, also confirms IRAS 13349+2438 has a rich absorption spectra of quasar outflows.

In 2000, XMM Newton discovered that the galaxy contains several broad absorption lines from various ionized elements like nitrogen, oxygen and iron L-shell ions.

Further evidence shows, IRAS 13349+2438 also has an unresolved transitional array of an inner-shell absorption, possibly misidentified to be an OVII edge through observations made by moderate resolution spectrometers.

[12] In a study sample of narrow-line Seyfert galaxies, IRAS 13349+2438 contains an unresolved core region with an approximate size of 540 x 235 parsecs.