With an estimated 28 ± 2 km (17 ± 1 mi) diameter,[4] Linus is very large compared to most asteroid moons, and would be a sizable asteroid by itself. The only known larger moons in the main belt are the smaller components of the double asteroids 617 Patroclus and 90 Antiope.
It has been estimated that Linus' orbit precesses at quite a rapid rate, making one cycle in several years. This is attributed primarily to the non-spherical shape of Kalliope.[3][7] Linus's brightness has varied appreciably between observations, which may indicate that its shape is elongated.[7]
Linus may have formed out of impactejecta from a collision with Kalliope, or a fragment captured after disruption of a parent asteroid (a proto-Kalliope).
^"linia" = 'of Linus' in Banier (1793) The mythology and fables of the ancients, explain'd from history, v. 1; also in Charles Frederick Partington (1838) The British Cyclopædia of Biography