[14] This minor planet was named after noted German physicist Max Planck (1858–1947), on the commemoration of his 80th birthday.

[1][3] Between 2000 and 2010, several rotational lightcurves of Planckia were obtained from photometric observations by Brian Warner, Jérôme Caron and René Roy (U=2/3/3/2/2-).

[10][11][12][13] Lightcurve analysis gave a consolidated rotation period of 8.665 hours with a brightness amplitude between 0.14 and 0.42 magnitude.

[3][a] According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, the Japanese Akari satellite and the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Planckia measures between 35.657 and 44.34 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.1771 and 0.219.

[5][6][7][8][9] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.1982 and a diameter of 39.35 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 9.4.