It was discovered on 26 November 1937, by Hungarian astronomer György Kulin at Konkoly Observatory in Budapest, Hungary.
[2] Bolyai orbits the Sun in the central main-belt at a distance of 2.0–3.3 AU once every 4 years and 3 months (1,559 days).
[8] According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, and NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Bolyai measures between 12.31 and 14.76 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo between 0.047 and 0.05.
[4][5][6][7] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link (CALL) derives an albedo of 0.0426 and a diameter of 14.75 kilometers with an absolute magnitude of 13.2.
This minor planet was named after the Hungarian mathematician János Bolyai (1802–1860), a co-founder of non-Euclidean geometry in the early 19th century.