It was discovered by English astronomer N. R. Pogson on April 17, 1861, from the Madras Observatory.
Pogson chose the name to refer both to Asia, a figure in Greek mythology, and to the continent of Asia, because the asteroid was the first to be discovered from that continent.
[4] This object is orbiting the Sun with a period of 3.77 years, a semimajor axis of 2.421 AU, and an eccentricity of 0.185.
It has a 2:1 commensurability with Mars, having an orbital period double that of the planet.
This is a stony S-type asteroid with a cross-sectional size of 61 km,[2] Photometry from the Oakley Observatory during 2006 produced a lightcurve that indicated a sidereal rotation period of 15.90±0.02 with an amplitude of 0.26±0.04 in magnitude.