It was discovered by French astronomer J. Chacornac on April 6, 1855, and named after Circe, the bewitching queen of Aeaea island in Greek mythology.

The spectrum of this object matches a C-type asteroid, suggesting a carbonaceous composition.

It has a cross-section size of 113 km and is orbiting the Sun with a period of 4.40 years.

Photometric observations of this asteroid made during 2007 at the Organ Mesa Observatory in Las Cruces, New Mexico gave an asymmetrical bimodal light curve with a period of 12.176 ± 0.002 hours and a brightness variation of 0.17 ± 0.02 in magnitude.

[5] The spectra of the asteroid displays evidence of aqueous alteration.