It has the proper name Alnair /æˈnɛər/, from Arabic: نير بطن قنطورس, romanized: nayyir baṭan qanṭūris, lit.

This system is close enough to the Earth that its distance can be measured directly using the parallax technique.

[13] Consequently, the Chinese name for ζ Centauri itself is 庫樓一 (Kù Lóu yī, English: the First Star of Arsenal.

)[14] ζ Cen is a double-lined spectroscopic binary system,[15] which indicates that the orbital motion was detected by shifts in the absorption lines of their combined spectra caused by the Doppler effect.

[7] At an estimated age of 40 million years,[3] the primary component of this system appears to be in the subgiant stage of its evolution with a stellar classification of B2.5 IV.