main-belt asteroid
Pallas
The second asteroid ever discovered, one of the largest in the main belt, travelling on an unusually steeply tilted orbit.
- Distance from Earth today
- 285.7 million km1.909 AU · light: 15 min 53 s
- Distance from the Sun today
- 410.5 million km2.744 AU
- As of
- 2 November 2026position from NASA/JPL orbital elements
Where it is today
Top view of the plane of Earth’s orbit, compressed distance scale. Open on the big map with the time slider →
Facts
- Diameter
- 513 km
- Dimensions
- 568 × 532 × 448 km
- Mass
- 204 × 10¹⁸ kg
- Density
- 2,890 kg/m³
- Rotation period
- 7.8 h
- Semi-major axis
- 2.769 AU (414.3 million km)
- Perihelion
- 2.130 AU
- Aphelion
- 3.408 AU
- Orbital period
- 4.61 years
- Orbital eccentricity
- 0.231
- Orbital inclination
- 34.9°
- Last perihelion
- 8 March 2023
- Next perihelion
- 16 October 2027
- Minimum orbit distance from Earth’s orbit (MOID)
- 1.227 AU (183.5 million km)
- Albedo
- 0.155
Source of the figures: JPL Small-Body Database (public domain).
Discovery: 1802 – Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers
Description
Pallas was the second asteroid to be found, discovered by Heinrich Olbers in 1802, a year after Ceres. It is one of the largest objects in the asteroid belt, but its orbit is strongly tilted relative to the plane of the planets, which would make it difficult and expensive for a spacecraft to reach – none has visited it so far. Images from large ground-based telescopes with adaptive optics show a heavily cratered surface, consistent with violent collisions along its inclined path. The chemical element palladium was named after it.