The asteroid was discovered on 23 September 1917, by Soviet–Russian astronomer Sergey Belyavsky at the Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula.

[2] The bright S-type/A-type asteroid has a rotation period of 5.6 hours and measures approximately 8 kilometers (5.0 miles) in diameter.

Kate orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 1.8–2.7 AU once every 3 years and 4 months (1,226 days).

[2] The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 1 April 1980 (M.P.C.

[6][7][8][a] According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's space-based Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Kate measures 8.131 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.189 and 0.2242, respectively,[3][4] while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and calculates a diameter of 8.61 kilometers with an absolute magnitude of 12.69.