It was discovered on 8 February 1994, by Belgian astronomer Eric Elst at ESO's La Silla Observatory in northern Chile.
[1] This minor planet was named from Greek mythology after the Trojan warrior Helicaon, son of Antenor and King Priam's daughter, Laodice.
Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 44.77±0.05 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.18 magnitude (U=2).
[8][a] While not being a slow rotator, Helicaon has a significantly longer period than most larger Jupiter trojans (see table below).
[6] According to the survey carried out by the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Helicaon measures 32.54 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.050,[7] while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for a carbonaceous asteroid of 0.057 and calculates a diameter of 30.59 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 11.3.