Observed through a small telescope, Beta Scorpii appears as a binary star with a separation between the two components of 13.5 arcseconds and a combined apparent magnitude of 2.50.

The designations of the sub-components - β Scorpii A, Aa, Ab, B, C, E, Ea and Eb - derive from the convention used by the Washington Multiplicity Catalog (WMC) for multiple star systems, and adopted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

The WGSN decided to attribute proper names to individual stars rather than entire multiple systems.

[20] USS Graffias (AF-29) was once a United States navy ship named after the star.

The β Scorpii system is a kinematic member of the Upper Scorpius subgroup of the Scorpius–Centaurus association, a group of thousands of young stars with mean age 11 million years at distance 470 light years (145 parsecs).

Analysis of β1 Scorpii as a single star derived an evolutionary age between 9 and 12 million years,[21] but analysis of the β Scorpii system as a whole suggest an age closer to 6 million years.

[7] Beta Scorpii is 1.01 degree from the ecliptic and can be occulted by the Moon and, very rarely, by planets.