It has a central region composed of a bright nucleus and an amorphous lens devoid of dust or spiral structure. The lens resembles an Elliptical or Lenticular galaxy. Multiple, thin dust lanes begin to spiral outward at the periphery of the amorphous lens. They appear to be separate luminous spiral filaments of very complex structure. At first glance the filaments look like complete spiral arms, but closer inspection shows that only thin broken segments are present which cannot be traced as individual arcs for more than 30 degrees.
Infrared observations show that a ring of intense star formation surrounds the nucleus.
However, observations by radio astronomers show that the galaxy has a lot of cool hydrogen and molecular gas that is probably in the spiral arms.