Its redshift is 0.074602,[2] meaning NGC 3950 is 1.03 billion light-years or 316 Mpc from Earth, which is within the Hubble distance values.

[3] This high redshift makes NGC 3950 one of the furthest New General Catalogue objects.

[4] NGC 3950 has apparent dimensions of 0.30 x 0.3 arcmin, meaning the galaxy is 90,000 light-years across.

[5] It was discovered by Lawrence Parsons[6][7] on April 27, 1875, and he described it as, "extremely faint, 2.6 arcmin north of h 1009".

[10] Together with NGC 3949, they both form an optical galaxy pair called HOLM 301.