It was discovered on 29 September 2002, by Swiss astronomer Markus Griesser at the Eschenberg Observatory in Winterthur, near Zürich, Switzerland.
[1] Helvetia is a non-family asteroid of the main belt's background population when applying the hierarchical clustering method to its proper orbital elements.
[1] This minor planet bears the name for Switzerland (Latin: Confoederatio Helvetica), where the asteroid was discovered.
[5] In April 2014, Helvetia was photometrically observed by Hungarian astronomers Gyula M. Szabó and Krisztián Sárneczky.
[6][7][8] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes an albedo of 0.24 – derived from 8 Flora, the largest member and namesake of its family – and calculates a diameter of 2.06 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 15.6.