9997 COBE is a main belt asteroid. It orbits the Sun once every 4.06 years.
Discovered on March 25, 1971 by C. J. van Houten and I. van Houten-Groeneveld in archival data produced by T. Gehrels, it was given the provision designation 1217 T-1. It was later renamed 9997 COBE in honour of the Cosmic Background Explorer.