It was discovered by American astronomers Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker at the U.S. Palomar Observatory, California, on 4 November 1988.
[2] Ables is a member of the Hungaria family, which form the innermost dense concentration of asteroids in the Solar System.
[3] Based on the surveys carried out by the NASA's space-based Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer and its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Ables has an albedo of 0.29 and 0.51, with a corresponding diameter of 5.7 and 4.3 kilometers, respectively,[5][4] while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.30 and calculates a diameter of 5.3 kilometers with an absolute magnitude of 13.3.
[3] Between 2010 and 2014, three rotational lightcurves of Ables have been obtained by American astronomer Brian Warner at the Palmer Divide Station (714) in Colorado.
The best result gave a short rotation period of 2.798 hours with a brightness variation of 0.10 magnitude (U=3).