It was discovered on 14 September 1951, by astronomers Albert George Wilson and Rudolph Minkowski at the Palomar Observatory in California, United States.

[3] As a potentially hazardous asteroid, Geographos has a minimum orbital intersection distance (MOID) with Earth of less than 0.05 AU and a diameter of greater than 150 meters.

In 1994 and 1995, Polish astronomers obtained a concurring period 5.223328 hours and found a spin axis of (54.0°, −52.0°) in ecliptic coordinates (λ, β) (Q=3/3).

[15][16] The light curve shows a high amplitude, indicative of its elongated shape, measuring 5.0×2.0×2.1 kilometers, which corresponds to a mean-diameter of 2.5 km.

The asteroid's high thermal inertia indicates the surface is most likely a mix of fine grains and large rocks and boulders.

[24] During the asteroid's close approach to Earth in 1994, a radar study of it was conducted by the Deep Space Network at the Goldstone Observatory, California.

[5][6][7][9][4] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link adopts an albedo of 0.26 and a diameter of 2.5 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 15.09.