The asteroid was discovered on 28 August 1984, by Czech astronomer Antonín Mrkos at Kleť Observatory and named after physicist Christian Doppler.
[3][7] Doppler orbits the Sun in the central main-belt at a distance of 1.9–3.2 AU once every 4 years and 1 month (1,496 days).
This is fairly long orbital period for a moon of an asteroid of this size.
[5] According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Doppler measures 8.021 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.228,[6] while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and calculates a diameter of 8.97 kilometers with an absolute magnitude of 12.6.
[3] The approved naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 28 August 1996 (M.P.C.