It was discovered on 10 September 1948, by Soviet–Russian astronomer Pelageya Shajn at the Simeiz Observatory located on the Crimean peninsula.

[2] ITA orbits the Sun in the outer main-belt at a distance of 2.7–3.5 AU once every 5 years and 7 months (2,030 days).

[8] 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, ITA measures between 61.87 and 66.09 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo between 0.051 and 0.079.

[4][5][6] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.0461 and a diameter of 61.93 kilometers with an absolute magnitude of 10.0.

This minor planet was named in 1979, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the USSR Academy of Sciences' Institute for Theoretical Astronomy (ITA), in what was then Leningrad.