[3] Observations by the Hubble Space Telescope of the core of NGC 720 did not reveal the presence of dust, disk, or inner spiral.

Its shape cannot be accounted for based on the observed mass, even when using the Modified Newtonian dynamics theory of gravity, which excludes the need for dark matter.

[5][6] The galaxy lacks emission in radio waves, meaning it does not host an active galactic nucleus.

[9] However, in 2012 it was observed that the blue globular clusters subpopulation had a similar slope with the X-ray surface brightness profile.

[11] Optical long slit spectrography of the galaxy showed a strong age gradient along the semimajor axis of NGC 720, which has been explained on the grounds of two distinct population components.

The high fraction of early-type galaxies suggest that NGC 720 may be a fossil group, despite its low mass.