The asteroid was discovered on 26 October 1992, by Japanese amateur astronomers Kin Endate and Kazuro Watanabe at Kitami Observatory on eastern Hokkaidō, Japan.
[1] A first precovery was taken at Palomar Observatory in 1954, extending the asteroid's observation arc by 38 years prior to its discovery.
[1] A rotational lightcurve of Ko was obtained from photometric observations by Czech astronomer Petr Pravec at the Ondřejov Observatory in June 2012.
[3] This minor planet was named in honor of Japanese scientist Ko Nagasawa (born 1932), who became a keen researcher of meteors and workes for the Public Information Office at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, after retiring from the Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo in 1994.
The minor planet's name was proposed by the second discoverer, Kazuro Watanabe, following a suggestion by Japanese astronomer Kōichirō Tomita.