A very faint cool star 9" away is also thought to be gravitationally bound, making it a hierarchical quadruple system.

[8] The main component is visible as the 10th magnitude variable star at the centre of NGC 1999, referred to as the primary.

Speckle interferometry shows a cool companion separated by 0.15", approximately 62 AU, referred to as the tertiary.

The two closest stars, the primary and tertiary, are surrounded by a circumstellar disk, lying almost edge-on to observers on earth.

[8] One of the component stars of V380 Orionis appears to have launched a astrophysical jet that helped to clear the keyhole-shaped hole in the surrounding nebula known as NGC 1999.