Image:

The low-resolution image on the "Other images" page shows that near the centre both lobes show faint, rotationally symmetric distortions away from the nucleus. A high-resolution image showing details of the very asymmetric hotspots is given by Hardcastle et al. (1997).

There is a companion galaxy 5.5 arcsec to the east, projected within the faint extension of the northern lobe. Roche & Eales (2000) claim that the two galaxies have tidal distortion and hence are closely interacting; however their images do not shown this very clearly. The radio lobes show no sign interacting with the companion. The galaxies are members of a cluster.

3C 381 is often listed as a broad-line radio galaxy, on the basis of an unpublished spectrum by Grandi & Osterbrock (1978). This has been controversial because the radio structure does not show the quasar-like features (strong core and one-sided jet) that are common in most BLRG, and expected according to unified schemes. As discussed by Dennett-Thorpe et al. (2000), a likely explanation is that it is a case like 3C 234, at an intermediate angle to the line of sight so that the broad lines are highly reddened but just detectable.