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Credit: ESO/MPE/M. Marsset et al. Credit: ESO — used under educational fair use
Physical Properties
256 km
2.04e20 kg
2.89 g/cm³
7.8132 h
0.159
Orbit
Sun
2.772 AU
0.2302
34.837°
4.61 yr
Sources & Further Reading
- Wikipedia — extensive cross-referenced article
- Marsset et al., Nat Astron 2020 u2014 (2) Pallas as a distinct collisional family (2020)
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: 2026-04-18 18:19:26.
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.