[4] The central region of NGC 3311 is obscured by a dust cloud[14] with an estimated diameter of 1,700 ly (0.53 kpc).

[15] It has an amorphous and complex structure and its small size and disturbed morphology suggests that the cloud originated from a merger event with another galaxy that occurred within the past 10 million years.

Oddly though, there are no shells or isophote distortions in the outer regions of NGC 3311 that would have been the result of such a recent merger.

This suggests that the excess blue population represents an ongoing formation of young bright stars.

The off centered-envelope has a higher metallicity than the outer halo[20] and is located close to the infalling group of dwarf galaxies.

[27] An analysis by Secker et al. in 1995 using Washington photometry from the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory concluded that NGC 3311 had the most metal-rich globular cluster system known, with a complete absence of populations of metal-poor and intermediate-metallicity globular clusters.

[29][4] A large population of about 50 ultra-compact dwarf galaxies (UDCs)[30] have been detected in the Hydra Cluster,[31][30] with most of them being dynamically associated to NGC 3311.