J. L. E. Dreyer, the author of the New General Catalogue, described it as, "very bright, large, very much extended 151°, very suddenly much brighter middle equal to 10th magnitude star".

[8] The morphological class is SAa, indicating a spiral galaxy with no central bar and very tightly-wound arms.

This disk begins to warp at a radius of around 98 kly (30 kpc), suggesting the perturbing effect of in-falling matter from the surrounding medium.

[5] The rotational behavior of the galaxy suggests there is a massive nuclear bulge,[6] with a low-ionization nuclear emission-line region (LINER) at the core; a type of region that is characterized by spectral line emission from weakly ionized atoms.

[10] A prominent molecular ring is orbiting at a radius of 7–20 kly (2–6 kpc), which is providing a star-forming region of gas and dust.