Pallas

The third-largest main-belt asteroid — highly inclined, rich in water.

Orbits Sun

Third-largest and second-most-massive asteroid in the belt.
Unusually high orbital inclination u2014 never visited because of the fuel cost.
Surface shows signs of aqueous alteration.

About Pallas

Pallas is the third-largest asteroid in the main belt but orbits with an unusually high 34.8° inclination, which makes it fuel-intensive to visit and therefore still unexplored up-close. ALMA and Hubble imaging show Pallas to be a battered ellipsoid with a surface saturated in craters. It is a B-type asteroid — primitive, water-rich, and closely related to carbonaceous chondrite meteorites.

Live · 3DSee Pallas in the Live 3D Solar SystemFly to Pallas and explore its orbit among the planets, moons & spacecraft in a full-screen interactive view.Launch 3D view

Physical Properties

Mean radius256 km

Mass2.04e20 kg

Density2.89 g/cm³

Rotation period7.8132 h

Bond albedo0.159

Orbit

OrbitsSun

Semi-major axis2.772 AU

Eccentricity0.2302

Inclination34.837°

Orbital period4.61 yr

Gallery

Hand-picked mission imagery of Pallas sourced from NASA and partner archives. Click any photo for full resolution and source attribution.

The 'golf ball' asteroid 2 Pallas, resolved by ESO's VLT/SPHERE imager (2020). ESO/M. Marsset et al./MISTRAL algorithm (ONERA/CNRS) · ESO u2014 CC BY 4.0

Imagery on this page is provided by the original mission teams. Full attribution terms: Image Rights & Credits.

Sources & Further Reading

Numerical values (radius, mass, orbital elements, temperatures) are drawn from NASA NSSDC Planetary Fact Sheets, JPL Horizons, and the JPL Small-Body Database. Last refreshed: 2026-06-08 01:37:02.