[5] It has been proposed that there is a third star, of lower mass and closely orbiting MWC 349A, possibly at a distance of 12–13 AU from the primary with a period of 9 years.

[7][8] MWC 349 is one of the brightest radio sources in the sky and 2 cm observations show a prominent hourglass nebula.

[9] The distant association with MWC 349B and its remoteness from the dense star-forming regions that would normally host such luminous stars is unusual.

One possibility is that the whole system was ejected from Cygnus OB2 and the two components have since become unbound due to mass loss from MWC 349A.

The compact nature of the material absorbing and re-radiating much of the stars output suggests that it is unlikely to be extremely luminous.