Huya has been considered to be a possible dwarf planet, though its relatively small size and dark surface may imply that it never collapsed into a solid body and was thus never in hydrostatic equilibrium.

[e] The subtle movement of Huya was detected by the QUEST's computer program, which was designed to identify moving objects by superimposing multiple images.

[16][15] The discovery team subsequently analyzed earlier images taken from previous QUEST surveys conducted during the same month in order to verify the orbital motion of Huya.

[20] At that time, Huya was thought to be one of the largest minor planets in the Solar System due to its apparent magnitude of 20, which is relatively bright for a distant object.

[16] Astronomers speculated that Huya could be the second-largest minor planet discovered after Ceres, with a diameter around one-fourth the size of the then-planet Pluto.

[22][23] This minor planet is named after the mythological figure Huya (Juyá), the rain god of the Wayuu people indigenous to the Guajira Peninsula of northern Venezuela and Colombia.

[24][25] In Wayuu mythology, Juyá is a hunter who controlled the rain and was married to Pulowi, the female figure related to the wind and dry seasons.

[27] The discovery team led by Ferrín particularly chose the name to represent Venezuela's indigenous peoples that lived in the region where Huya was discovered.

[25] Ferrín presumed that Huya had experienced multiple impact events during its formation, which he considered analogous to rain, a trait associated with Juyá.

[33][34] Simulations by the Deep Ecliptic Survey (DES) show that Huya can acquire a perihelion distance (qmin) as small as 27.27 AU over the next 10 million years.

[12][35] As Huya's phase angle approaches zero during opposition, its brightness increases gradually, which indicates it has a low geometric albedo.

[8] No signs of a possible atmosphere or rings were detected during the occultation, with strong constraints put on the amount of debris in the vicinity of Huya.

[8] Results from the March 2019 and June 2023 occultations show that Huya has a flattened shape resembling an ellipse, with an equatorial diameter of 436 km (271 mi).

[16][15][21] These initial large diameter estimates led some astronomers to suspect Huya could be a dwarf planet candidate,[46]: 856 [37] though subsequent studies have since shown this is no longer the case.

[46]: 854 [7]: 15  At this size, Huya's icy interior is expected to be highly porous, having not experienced sufficient internal heating to undergo melting and differentiation.

[48]: 2  Tholins are produced by the long-term irradiation of ices by solar radiation and cosmic rays,[48]: 2  which chemically breaks them down and recombines them into more complex compounds.

[49]: 7  Tholins accumulate on Huya's surface over time, forming a thick layer that conceals fresh material like water ice underneath.

[48]: 2 The surface composition of Huya can be studied via spectroscopy, particularly in near-infrared wavelengths where absorption signatures of various compounds like water ice and hydrocarbons can be found.

[50]: L163 [48]: L29  Early attempts at studying Huya's near-infrared spectrum by ground-based telescopes were unable to detect any clear absorption features.

[52]: 3, 4 [49]: 3, 4  No clear signs of water ice were detected in Huya's near-infrared spectrum by JWST; while there is an absorption feature at 2.0 μm where water ice is expected (and was tentatively reported by ground-based spectroscopy),[51]: 3, 7–8  it is more likely attributed to complex organics due to the absorption feature's different shape.

[49]: 5  TNOs exhibiting this "double-dip" spectral feature are generally found on dynamically excited (high inclination and eccentricity) orbits, and are believed to have formed near the CO2 ice line in the middle of the primordial Kuiper belt prior to Neptune's outward migration.

[57] A similar scenario has been observed in the binary Kuiper belt object 174567 Varda, whose rotation is not tidally locked to its large satellite Ilmarë.

[7] During mutual events season, Huya and its satellite will take turns eclipsing and transiting each other, producing dips in brightness that last up to ~5 hours and have depths of up to ~0.25 magnitudes.

[7] In a study published by Ashley Gleaves and colleagues in 2012, Huya was considered as a potential target for an orbiter mission that would be launched on an Atlas V 551 or Delta IV HLV rocket.

For an orbiter mission to Huya, the spacecraft would have a launch date in November 2027 and use a gravity assist from Jupiter, taking 20 to 25 years to arrive.