It was discovered by German astronomer Friedrich Schwassmann at the Bergedorf Observatory in Hamburg on 17 March 1931.

[13] The asteroid orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.8–3.0 AU once every 3 years and 8 months (1,329 days).

[12] Photometric observations of Prisma gave a well defined rotational lightcurve with a period between 6.546 and 6.558 hours and a high brightness variation of 0.85–1.16 magnitude, which strongly indicates that the body has an elongated, non-spheroidal shape (U=3/3).

[7][8] A modeled lightcurve based on optical data from a large collaboration network also found a spin axis of (133.0°, −78.0°) in ecliptic coordinates (λ, β) (Q=n.a.).

[5][6] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo of 0.23 and calculates a diameter of 7.22 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 12.92.