It was discovered by C. H. F. Peters on September 25, 1879, in Clinton, New York, and named after Pompeii, the Roman town destroyed in volcanic eruption in AD 79.

This asteroid is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 2.74 AU with an eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.06 and a period of 4.53 yr.

Because the rotation period nearly matches that of the Earth, it required coordinated observations from multiple observatories at widely spaced latitudes to produce a complete light curve.

[4] As discovered in 2021, the asteroid has a very red color due to tholins on its surface, similar to trans-Neptunian objects.

It is therefore thought to have formed in the outer Solar System despite its current orbit within the asteroid belt.