It was discovered by the German-French astronomer H. Goldschmidt on October 5, 1855, and named by French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier after the Greek mythological heroine Atalanta (of which Atalante is the French and German form, pronounced nearly the same as 'Atalanta' in English).

[3] This asteroid is classified as C-type (carbonaceous), according to the Tholen classification system.

[1] Observation of the asteroid light curve indicates it is rotating with a period of 9.93 ± 0.01 hours.

[8] By combining the results of multiple light curves, the approximate ellipsoidal shape of the object can be estimated.

[10][11] This asteroid shares a mean-motion resonance with the planets Jupiter and Saturn.