It was discovered on 28 March 1982, by American astronomer Edward Bowell at the Anderson Mesa Station in Flagstaff, Arizona.
[1] In September 2010, a rotational lightcurve of Binzel was obtained from photometric observations in the R-band by astronomers at the Palomar Transient Factory in California.
[3] This minor planet was named after American astronomer Richard Binzel (born 1958) of the University of Texas at Austin.
During the 1980s, Binzel has been a prolific photometrist, obtaining a large number of rotational lightcurves of main-belt asteroids.
The official naming citation was prepared by Alan W. Harris and published by the Minor Planet Center on 8 November 1984 (M.P.C.