It was discovered on 18 November 1935, by French astronomer Louis Boyer at the Algiers Observatory in Algeria, North Africa.

[13]: 23 In February 2002, a rotational lightcurve of Safara was obtained from photometric observations by American astronomer Brian Warner at his Palmer Divide Observatory (716) in Colorado.

Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 7.25 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.36 magnitude (U=3-).

Modeling gave a period of 7.14908 hours and two spin axis in ecliptic coordinates (λ, β) of (197.0°, 32.0°) and (10.0°, 12.0°).

[5][6][7][8] CALL assumes an albedo of 0.14 – derived from 221 Eos, the family's largest member and namesake – and calculates a diameter of 25.73 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 10.7.