It was discovered by Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in 1929, and later named for the Greek island of Ithaca.
[11] Ithaka was discovered on 8 September 1929, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg Observatory in southwest Germany.
[11] Five nights later, it was independently discovered by Soviet astronomer Grigory Neujmin at Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula.
Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period between 4.93115 and 4.932 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.12 to 0.15 magnitude (U=3/3/3).
[4][5][6][8] A collaboration of Italian and American photometrists estimate a diameter of 14±3 kilometers,[7] and the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for carbonaceous asteroids of 0.057 and derives a diameter of 14.37 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 12.94.