It was discovered on 13 January 1983, by American astronomer Carolyn Shoemaker at the Palomar Observatory in California, United States.
[1] The first precovery was taken at Crimea-Nauchnij in 1978, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 5 years prior to its discovery.
[3] This minor planet was named for American planetary geologist and astronomer Henry E. Holt (born 1929), at NAU and USGS, who has explored the surface of the Moon, its geology and photometric properties during the Apollo and Surveyor programs.
[1] According to the survey carried out by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission, Holt measures 5.03 kilometers in diameter and its surface has an albedo of 0.28,[5] while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Linkassumes a standard albedo for stony asteroids of 0.20 and derives a diameter of 6.44 kilometer with an absolute magnitude of 13.32.
[4][6][7] In November 2017, a rotational lightcurve of Holt was obtained from photometric observation by Robert Stephens and collaborators.