It was first observed at Paranal Observatory in the Atacama desert of Chile on 20 January 2004.
2004 BX159 orbits the Sun in the central main-belt at a distance of 2.2–2.9 AU once every 4.03 years (1,471 days).
[1] After discovery, it was thought to be a Mars-crossing asteroid because of its poorly known orbit, and was listed on the Sentry Risk Table as a possible impactor.
[7] Precovery observations in archival data of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea were identified in early 2014, resulting in a dramatic improvement of the orbital accuracy, sufficient to recognize the object as a regular main belt asteroid, not posing any danger to Earth.
[1] The body was subsequently linked by the Minor Planet Center with additional observations reported since 1997.