Amphitrite was discovered by Albert Marth on 1 March 1854, at the private South Villa Observatory, in Regent's Park, London.

[15][16] Amphitrite's orbit is less eccentric and inclined than those of its larger cousins; indeed, it is the most circular of any asteroid discovered up to that point.

[7] A satellite of the asteroid is suspected to exist, based on lightcurve data collected by Edward F.

[18][19] In 1988 a search for satellites or dust orbiting this asteroid was performed using the UH88 telescope at the Mauna Kea Observatories, but neither were found.

[20] In 1984, while determining the Galileo mission's prelaunch trajectory to Jupiter, JPL engineers found out that if the spacecraft launched on May 1986, it could perform a flyby of 29 Amphitrite at a distance of 6,200 mi (10,000 km) on December 6, 1986.