[3][7]: 23 It orbits the Sun in the outer asteroid belt at a distance of 3.1–3.1 AU once every 5 years and 6 months (1,996 days).
Gehrels used Palomar's Samuel Oschin telescope (also known as the 48-inch Schmidt Telescope), and shipped the photographic plates to Ingrid and Cornelis van Houten at Leiden Observatory where astrometry was carried out.
[8] According to the surveys carried out by IRAS and NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Kuiper measures 36.0 and 40.0 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has a low albedo of 0.033 and 0.054, respectively.
[9] This minor planet is named after Dutch–American astronomer Gerard Kuiper (1905–1973), initiator of the Palomar-Leiden survey.
[2] The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 25 September 1971 (M.P.C.