[7] It was discovered on 19 August 1998, by astronomers of the LINEAR program at Lincoln Laboratory's Experimental Test Site near Socorro, New Mexico, in the United States.

As with many members of the Amor group, this asteroid has an aphelion beyond the orbit of Mars (at 1.66 AU) which also makes it a Mars-crosser.

[11] However, the Tisserand parameter with respect to Jupiter (TJ=3.2) does not make it obvious whether 1998 QE2 was ever a comet, since cometary TJ values are typically below 3.

[6] Integrating the orbital solution shows the asteroid passed 0.08 AU (12,000,000 km; 7,400,000 mi) from Earth on 8 June 1975[12] with an apparent magnitude of about 13.9.

[6] Goldstone radar observations on 29 May 2013 discovered that 1998 QE2 is orbited by a minor-planet moon approximately 600–800 meters in diameter.