It was discovered on 17 February 1950, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg Observatory in southern Germany.

[2] Jens orbits the Sun in the central main-belt at a distance of 2.1–3.2 AU once every 4 years and 4 months (1,581 days).

[8][9] In February 2006, photometric observations by French amateur astronomer Laurent Bernasconi gave a concurring period of 5.873 hours with an amplitude of 0.55 magnitude (U=3).

[3][12] 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, Jens measures between 18.93 and 21.61 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo between 0.085 and 0.149.

[4][5][6] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.1048 and calculates a diameter of 18.76 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 11.7.