It is one of the brightest stars in the constellation with a slightly variable apparent visual magnitude of +2.30.

[10] Consequently, the Chinese name for ε Centauri itself is 南門一 (Nán Mén yī, English: the First Star of Southern Gate.

[4] The spectrum matches a stellar classification of B1 III,[4] indicating this is an evolved giant star.

It is radiating more than 15,000[4] times the luminosity of the Sun from its outer atmosphere at an effective temperature of 24,000 K,[4] giving it the blue-white hue of a B-type star.

[6] Epsilon Centauri is a relatively young star, with an age of around 16 million years.