It was discovered on 11 October 1936, by Finnish astronomer Yrjö Väisälä at Turku Observatory in Southwest Finland.
It orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 1.8–2.7 AU once every 3 years and 4 months (1,220 days).
Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of 6.683 hours with a brightness variation of 0.41 magnitude (U=3).
[7] According to the surveys carried out by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, the Japanese Akari satellite, and NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Kopff measures between 8.64 and 9.66 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.2497 and 0.342.
[4][5][6] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.271 and a diameter of 9.71 kilometers, with an absolute magnitude of 12.1.