Zwicky 0152+33 is one of three galaxy clusters discovered in 1968 by Fritz Zwicky to be made up mostly of compact elliptical galaxies. Zwicky estimated that there were 144 galaxies making up Abell 0272.

In 1972 Wallace Sargent of Hale Observatory made a detailed study of the dynamics of this cluster based on his red shift data for 16 of the brightest galaxies (all dimmer than 17th magnitude) that seem to make up a chain or central 'spine' of the cluster. He found that these galaxies are actually arranged in a non-rotating disk-like shape, seen edge-on and that at least the central 10 form a gravitationally bound system. He also found that all of these galaxies except #6 are very red and have a spectrum similar to older yellow & red stars. Galaxy #6 is much bluer and has emission features in its spectrum, consistent with recent star formation. Galaxy # 2M was identified as an infrared source by the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2 MASS).

Based on the red shift study, a distance estimate (using a Hubble Constant of 62 Km/sec per Mpc) for this cluster is 1.2 Billion light years. At that distance the picture above covers 1.8 by 2.6 million light years, or roughly the distance from the Milky Way to the Andromeda Galaxy.