The presumed C-type asteroid has a rotation period of 16.4 hours and measures approximately 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) in diameter.

[1] A first precovery was obtained at Palomar Observatory in 1956, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 11 years prior to its discovery.

[10] In September 2010, a rotational lightcurve of Valyaev was obtained from photometric observations by the Palomar Transient Factory survey in California.

Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 16.4399 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.44 magnitude (U=2).

[7] According to the surveys carried out by the Japanese Akari satellite and the NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, Valyaev measures 14.76 and 16.3 kilometers in diameter and its surface has a low albedo of 0.088 and 0.089, respectively.