[3] The asteroid is the first of several early "kilo-numbered" minor planets that were dedicated to renowned scientists or institutions including:[15] These are followed by the asteroids 5000 IAU (for the International Astronomical Union), 6000 United Nations (for the United Nations), 7000 Curie (for the pioneers on radioactivity, Marie and Pierre Curie), and 8000 Isaac Newton (for Isaac Newton),[15] while 9000 Hal (after HAL 9000 from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey) and 10000 Myriostos (after the Greek word for ten-thousandth, and to honor all astronomers) were named based on their direct numeric accordance.

[16] A person named Carl Friedrich Gauss who computed the orbit of Ceres, and Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers who found it again later that year after it has passed behind the Sun.

In the Tholen- and SMASS-like taxonomy of the Small Solar System Objects Spectroscopic Survey (S3OS2), Piazzia is a carbonaceous C-type and Cb-subtype, respectively, latter which transitions to the somewhat "brighter" B-type asteroids.

[6][13] After Piazzia had been published by The Minor Planet Bulletin as an opportunity for photometry in 2001, a classically shaped bimodal lightcurve was obtained by Robert Stephens at the Santana Observatory (646) in Rancho Cucamonga, California.

[17] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives a low albedo of 0.05 and a diameter of 47.19 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 10.5.