It was discovered on 22 May 1980, by Belgian astronomer Henri Debehogne at ESO's La Silla Observatory in northern Chile.

I has also been classified as a member of the Flora family (Zappala; double classification by Nesvorny), one of the largest asteroid clans in the main-belt.

Mourão also wrote several astronomical books and was the founder of the Brazilian Museum for Astronomy (Portuguese: Museu de Astronomia e Ciências Afins).

According to the survey carried out by the WISE and subsequent NEOWISE mission, the body's albedo amounts to 0.61,[7] while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a somewhat less extraordinary value of 0.4.

[8] A second, less secure lightcurve was obtained by Italian astronomers Roberto Crippa and Federico Manzini in September 2013, which gave a divergent period of 35.52 hours with an amplitude of 0.46 magnitude (U=2).