201 Penelope is a large main belt asteroid that was discovered by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa on August 7, 1879, in Pola.

The asteroid is named after Penelope, the wife of Odysseus in Homer's The Odyssey.

It is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 2.68 AU with an eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.18 and a period of 4.381 years.

[2] Based upon the spectra of this object, it is classified as a M-type asteroid, indicating it may be metallic in composition.

Near infrared absorption features indicate the presence of variable amounts of low-iron, low-calcium orthopyroxenes on the surface.