Inside the disk is an inner ring with a diameter of circa 0".44 arcseconds, which may be part of a hardly-visible spiral structure.

[4] Observations in CO emission revealed the presence of molecular gas in NGC 541, with estimated mass of approximately 108 M☉, and with a compact ring-like distribution with a radius of 1–2 kpc.

[6] At 45 arcseconds northeast of NGC 541 lies an irregular dwarf galaxy known as Minkowski's object.

The stellar population in Minkowski's object is dominated by stars formed in a single event 7.5 million years ago.

[7] Although it has been proposed that Minkowski's object was a dwarf galaxy that happened to pass through the radio jet of NGC 541, it is more probable that the HI region was warm intergalactic gas that was cooled by the jet, resulting in star formation,[7][8] a model that has been reproduced by computer stimulations.