It is a 5th magnitude star, faintly visible to the naked eye under good observing conditions.

Located around 540 light-years distant, it shines with a luminosity approximately 522 times that of the Sun and has a surface temperature of 15,655 K. South African Astronomer A.W.J.

Cousins noted ζ Cha to vary between magnitudes 5.06 and 5.17 in 1960.

[13] It was classified as a Beta Cephei variable in the Hipparcos and Tycho Catalogues (ESA 1997), with a period of 1.07 days,[14] before being reclassified as a slowly pulsating B star in the 2011 version.

[5] It is a B5V main sequence star with an effective temperature of 15,655 K, an absolute magnitude of −1.15 and a mass of 3.1 solar masses, although the properties are evaluated treating the system as a single star.