[5][4][10] Conversely, and since the existence of a proper Flora family has been ruled out by other astronomers, Nicholson has also been classified as a background asteroid.
[1] This minor planet was named by the discoverer in memory of American astronomer Seth B. Nicholson (1891–1963), who pioneered in several branches of planetary research at Mount Wilson Observatory and who discovered four of Jupiter's numerous moons – namely, Sinope, Lysithea, Carme, and Ananke.
[3][5] In April 2015, a rotational lightcurve of Nicholson was obtained from photometric observations by a group of Spanish astronomers from Valencia and Alicante at various observatories: (J08), (Z95), (J67), (Z98) and (I57).
Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of 3.228±0.001 hours and a brightness variation of 0.24 magnitude (U=3).
[9] At the same time, Serbian astronomer Vladimir Benishek at the Belgrade Observatory determined a concurring period of 3.25510±0.00003 hours with an amplitude of 0.29 magnitude (U=3).