It was discovered on 7 October 1986, by American astronomer Edward Bowell at Lowell's Anderson Mesa Station, near Flagstaff, Arizona.
Peltier orbits the Sun in the inner main-belt at a distance of 1.9–2.6 AU once every 3 years and 4 months (1,220 days).
[6] A rotational lightcurve of Peltier was obtained by Czech astronomer Petr Pravec at Ondřejov Observatory in October 2006.
[b] Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 2.4287 hours with a brightness variation of 0.09 magnitude (U=2).
[a] In December 2013, photometric observations by Australian amateur astronomer Julian Oey gave a concurring period of 2.4289 hours and an amplitude of 0.10 magnitude (U=3).