[4]: 389 Adams orbits the Sun in the central main-belt at a distance of 2.2–2.9 AU once every 4 years and 1 month (1,495 days).

Best-rated lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 3.311 hours with a brightness variation between 0.40 and 0.46 magnitude (U=3/3/3/3).

[10][13][14][a] Additional photometric observations gave similar periods of 3.316, 3.27 and 3.560 hours with an amplitude of 0.60, 0.28 and 0.34, respectively (U=2+/1/3).

[5][6][7][8] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.21 – derived from 15 Eunomia, the family's largest member and namesake – and calculates a diameter of 13.9 kilometers with an absolute magnitude of 11.6.

[3] This minor planet was named after John Couch Adams (1819–1892), British mathematician and astronomer, who predicted the existence and position of Neptune, simultaneously with French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier, (also see 1997 Leverrier).