The galaxy has a diameter of about 35,000 light-years and has a very diffuse disc with almost no central bulge.

Although its overall structure is quite complex, the galaxy does have a very faint spiral arm structure which has resulted in it receiving a galaxy morphological classification of SAB(s)d.[3] Like other galaxies with a similar type, NGC 5585 exhibits a moderate level of star formation that is mostly concentrated in the central region.

Despite this, the galaxy's visible components appear to form only a tiny fraction of the total mass present as the gravity of the visible portion of the disc does not explain the observed rotation curve even extremely close to the center.

One of the SNRs is extremely large with dimensions of about 200 x 90 parsecs (650 x 300 ly) and its x-ray emissions are so powerful that it actually distorted the initial x-ray emission contour map for the entire galaxy that was obtained by the Einstein Observatory in the early 1980s.

The SNR's large size and the fact that it is still expanding at an abnormally high rate of more than 85 km/s (53 mi/s) suggest that it is probably located in a low-density area of NGC 5585's interstellar medium.