[5] Balam was discovered on 24 January 1982, by American astronomer Edward Bowell at Lowell's Anderson Mesa Station near Flagstaff, Arizona, and received the prov.

[1] It is named after the Canadian astronomer David Balam, principal observer at Victoria's Climenhaga Observatory in British Columbia.

[14] The body's rotation around its axis has been measured several times by different lightcurve observations with a concurring period of 2.8 hours.

[11][12][13][a] On 13 February 2002, the discovery of a minor-planet moon, provisionally designated S/2002 (3749) 1, was announced by a team of researchers from SwRI, UA, JPL and OSUG, using the Gemini North Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

At some point in the past, the pair of asteroids became gravitationally unbound due to rotational fission induced by the YORP-effect or from a collisional breakup of the parent body.

Based on backward orbit integrations, it is thought that Balam and 2009 BR60 form a secured asteroid pair that became separated approximately 400,000 years ago.