It was discovered on 21 September 1987, by American astronomer Edward Bowell at the Anderson Mesa Station of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.
[12]: 23 The asteroid orbits the Sun in the outer main-belt at a distance of 2.4–3.8 AU once every 5 years and 7 months (2,029 days).
[3] In March 2012, a rotational lightcurve of Somerville was obtained from photometric observations by American astronomer Brian Warner at his Palmer Divide Observatory (716) in Colorado.
[5][6][7][8] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link derives an albedo of 0.0407 and a diameter of 22.84 kilometers based on an absolute magnitude of 12.3.
[3] This minor planet was named after Mary Somerville (1780–1872; née Fairfax), a Scottish polymath and science writer who studied mathematics and astronomy.