It was discovered on 2 November 1991, by Belgian astronomer Eric Elst at the La Silla site of the European Southern Observatory in Chile.
[1] The carbonaceous C-type asteroid is one of the largest Jupiter trojans with an unknown rotation period.
[2] The body's observation arc begins with a precovery published by the Digitized Sky Survey and taken at Palomar Observatory in October 1955, more than 36 years prior to its official discovery observation at La Silla.
[12] In the SDSS-based taxonomy, Daitor is a carbonaceous C-type,[8][9] while most Jupiter trojans are D-type asteroids.
[10] According to the survey carried out by the Japanese Akari satellite, the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, and the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, Daitor measures between 43.38 and 51.42 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.029 and 0.053.