[2] It was discovered by Auguste Charlois on 28 November 1892 in Nice, and was named for the German author Karl May.

[4] This asteroid is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 2.97 AU with a period of 5.12 years and an eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.067.

[2] During its orbit, this asteroid has made close approaches to the dwarf planet Ceres.

[5] Analysis of the asteroid light curve generated from photometric data collected during 2007 provided a rotation period of 7.385±0.004 h with a brightness variation of 0.16±0.03 in magnitude.

[6] It is classified as a G-type asteroid[5] and spans a diameter of approximately 83 km.