[1][5] It is located 1.19 billion light-years (366 Mpc) away in the constellation Coma Berenices, near the North Galactic Pole.

[6] Malin 1 is peculiar in several ways: its diameter alone would make it the largest barred spiral galaxy ever to have been observed.

Meanwhile, SDSS J123708.91+142253.2 is located within the huge, faint halo of Malin 1 and might have caused the formation of the extended low surface brightness disc through tidal stripping.

Observations by Galaz et al. in April 2014 revealed a detailed view of the spiral structure of Malin 1 in optical bands.

The galaxy exhibits giant and very faint spiral arms, with some segments up to 33,000 light-years (10,000 pc) in diameter.