[6] Antlia's distance from Earth is 40.5 megaparsecs (132.1 megalight-years) to 40.9 Mpc (133.4 Mly)[5] and can be viewed from Earth in the constellation Antlia.

[5] Antlia is classified as a rare Bautz–Morgan type III cluster,[4][3] meaning it has no central dominant (cD) brightest cluster galaxy.

[4][5] The cluster is very dense compared to other clusters such as Virgo and Fornax, thus containing early-type galaxies and a larger portion of dwarf ellipticals.

[5][7][clarification needed] The cluster is split into two galaxy groups, the Northern subgroup gravitating around NGC 3268, and the Southern subgroup centered on NGC 3258.

[4] Using the now-obsolete scientific satellite ASCA, X-ray observations show that the cluster is almost isothermal, with a mean temperature of kT ~ 2.0 keV.