[11] The asteroid was discovered on 25 November 1998 by LINEAR about four months after a close encounter with the planet Mercury (about 0.047 AU).

When 1998 WT24 was discovered, it was found to have a slightly smaller aphelion (1.019 AU) than 1993 DA, and was thus the closest thing to an Apohele asteroid known at the time[12].

Because of its frequent close encounters with Mercury and Earth, however, it may prove difficult for Venus to keep 1998 WT24 in a co-orbital relationship for any length of time.

That means its orbit takes it very close to Earth and if it were to collide with our planet, it would cause devastation on at least a regional scale.

[13] However, Toutatis arrived during a full moon, and thus 1998 WT24's 2001 encounter is still the most easily observed flyby of an asteroid in history.

During its close encounters in 2001 and 2015, astronomers were able to make radar images of its surface and determine physical properties that remain unknown for most asteroids.

[10] According to the ExploreNEOs Warm Spitzer Exploration Science program, 1998 WT24 is a bright E-type asteroid with an exceptionally high albedo of 0.75±0.35.

[3][5][9][c] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link an albedo of 0.34 and takes a diameter of 410 meters based on an absolute magnitude of 18.69.

[5][6][7][8][b][c] Lightcurve analysis gave a consolidated rotation period of 3.697 hours with a brightness amplitude between 0.19 and 0.65 magnitude (U=3).

It is high on the list of possible Near-Earth Asteroid targets for future flybys, landings, mining, or orbit manipulations.