It was discovered on 15 August 1923, by Russian astronomer Vladimir Albitsky at the Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula.

[1] The assumed C-type asteroid has a rotation period of 10.2 hours and measures approximately 24 kilometers (15 miles) in diameter.

[1] This minor planet was named after Heinrich Olbers (1758–1840), a physician and amateur astronomer from Bremen in northern Germany.

[15] In October 2007, a rotational lightcurve of Olbersia was obtained from photometric observations by French amateur astronomer Pierre Antonini.

[9] In 2011, a modeled lightcurve using data from the Uppsala Asteroid Photometric Catalogue (UAPC) and other sources gave a concurring period 10.2367 hours, as well as two spin axis of (220.0°, 35.0°) and (16.0°, 54.0°) in ecliptic coordinates (λ, β) (Q=2).

[6][7][11][8] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.0743 and a diameter of 32.21 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 10.9.