70 Panopaea is a large main beltasteroid. Its orbit is close to those of the Eunomia asteroid family; however, Panopaea is a dark, primitive carbonaceousC-type asteroid in contrast to the S-type asteroids of the Eunomian asteroids. The spectra of the asteroid displays evidence of aqueous alteration.[10]Photometric studies give a rotation period of 15.797 hours and an amplitude of 0.11±0.01 in magnitude. Previous studies that suggested the rotation period may be twice this amount were rejected based upon further observation.[11]
The asteroid frequently makes close approaches with 16 Psyche, such as on 12 June 2040 when it will make a close approach of 0.00602 AU (2.34 Lunar distances, or approx. 770,000 km, 478,455 mi) to the asteroid, and on 2 June 2095 when it will come only 0.003372 AU (1.31 LD) to the asteroid.[3]
^Fornasier, S.; et al. (February 1999), "Spectroscopic comparison of aqueous altered asteroids with CM2 carbonaceous chondrite meteorites", Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement, 135: 65−73, Bibcode:1999A&AS..135...65F, doi:10.1051/aas:1999161.
^Marciniak, Anna; et al. (June 2016), "Difficult cases in photometric studies of asteroids", 37th Meeting of the Polish Astronomical Society, held 7-10 September, 2015 at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland. Proceedings of the Polish Astronomical Society, vol. 3, pp. 84−87, Bibcode:2016pas..conf...84M.
^Plicht, Christof A. (24 December 2016), "Dunér, Nils Christoffer", Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_388.
^Šidlichovský, M. (1999), Svoren, J.; Pittich, E. M.; Rickman, H. (eds.), "Resonances and chaos in the asteroid belt", Evolution and source regions of asteroids and comets : proceedings of the 173rd colloquium of the International Astronomical Union, held in Tatranska Lomnica, Slovak Republic, August 24–28, 1998, pp. 297–308, Bibcode:1999esra.conf..297S.