It was discovered on 5 April 1995, by James Scotti and Robert Jedicke of Spacewatch (credited) at Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona, United States.

It is named after Asbolus, a centaur in Greek mythology and measures approximately 80 kilometers in diameter.

[22] In about ten thousand years, clones of the orbit of Asbolus suggest that its perihelion classification may come under the control of Jupiter.

He provoked a bloodbath in which the centaurs Chiron and Pholus met their deaths at Heracles' hands.

[24] No resolved images of it have ever been made, but in 1998 spectral analysis of its composition by the Hubble Space Telescope revealed a fresh impact crater on its surface, less than 10 million years old.