It was discovered on 20 September 1930, by Soviet–Georgian astronomer Grigory Neujmin at the Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula.
[8] In December 2010, a rotational lightcurve of Pelagia was obtained from photometric observations by Japanese astronomer couple Hiromi and Hiroko Hamanowa.
Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of 2.3661 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.08 magnitude (U=3).
[4][5][6] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.0486 and a diameter of 17.39 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 12.7.
In 1928, she discovered the asteroid 1112 Polonia and became the first female discoverer of minor planets (RI 895).