NGC 2997 is a face-on unbarred spiral galaxy about 40[3] million light-years away in the faint southern constellation of Antlia.

J. L. E. Dreyer described it as, "a remarkable object, very faint, very large, very gradually then very suddenly bright middle and 4 arcsec nucleus.

[9] The arms host a series of dusty knots that are star-forming regions being generated through gas compression from density waves.

[5] At the core, the arms converge to form a circumnuclear ring with symmetrically-placed hot spots containing super star clusters.

CCD images taken October 24, 2003 revealed supernova SN 2003jg, positioned 11″ east and 6″ north of the galactic nucleus.