It was discovered on 16 October 1941, by Finnish astronomer Liisi Oterma at Turku Observatory in Southwest Finland.
[10] According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Kukkamäki measures between 9.86 and 12.14 kilometers in diameter, and its surface has an albedo between 0.193 and 0.337,[4][5][6] while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and derives a diameter of 11.30 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 12.1.
[3] During an asteroid survey conducted at McDonald Observatory and CTIO in the 1980s, a rotational lightcurve of Kukkamäki was obtained by astronomer Richard Binzel.
The photoelectric observation gave a well-defined rotation period of 4.06 hours with a brightness variation of 0.32 magnitude (U=3), superseding a previous result based on a fragmentary lightcurve.
[2] The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 1 November 1979 (M.P.C.