It is located in the direction of the Indus constellation, at a distance of circa 150 million light years.

It was discovered by the English astronomer John Herschel in 1834 using a 47.5 cm (18.7 inch) reflector.

[2][3][4][5] NGC 7196 appears slightly distorted, with asymmetric outer isophotes.

The inner luminosity pattern resembles that of lenticular galaxies with circumscribing dust lanes, except that the feature is extremely close to the center.

Shells are generally considered to have formed after the accretion of a smaller galaxy by a massive one.