It was discovered on 27 July 1933, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg Observatory in southern Germany, and named after the Republic of Latvia.
[15] Latvia is classified as a rare T and L type asteroid in the Tholen and SMASS taxonomy scheme, respectively, both indicating a featureless spectra of a dark and reddish body.
[1] The so-far best rated rotational lightcurve of Latvia was obtained by the "Spanish Photometric Asteroid Analysis Group" (OBAS) in September 2015.
[10] Previous photometric observations by James W. Brinsfield at Via Capote Observatory (G69) and French amateur astronomer Laurent Bernasconi gave a period of 9.552 and 9.644 hours with an amplitude of 0.10 and 0.21 magnitude, respectively (U=2/2).
[4][5][6][7] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link adopts the results by IRAS, that is an albedo of 0.1045 and a diameter of 36.81 kilometers with an absolute magnitude of 10.24.