In the early 1990s, the European Hipparcos mission measured the parallax of components B and C, suggesting that the system was at a distance of 24.4 light-years from the Sun.

This, however, was a relatively large error as Earth-based parallax and orbit observations suggest that the two stars are actually part of a system with Gliese 570 A, and must actually lie at the same distance.

It has a separation of 190 astronomical units from the binary components B and C, moving in an eccentric orbit that takes at least 2130 years to complete.

[12] A binary system in their own right, components B and C are both rather dim red dwarf stars that have less mass, radius, and luminosity than the Sun.

The status of Gliese 570 D as a brown dwarf was confirmed by Doppler spectroscopy at the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory in Chile.