It was discovered on 12 January 1996, by the Spacewatch project of the University of Arizona at Kitt Peak National Observatory, United States.
[11] In 2006, a rotational lightcurve of Abt was obtained from photometric observation at Hunters Hill Observatory, Australia.
Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of 3.281 hours with a brightness variation of 0.30 magnitude (U=3).
[8] In 2012, a second lightcurve from the Palomar Transient Factory, California, gave a concurring period of 3.2766 hours with an amplitude of 0.33 magnitude (U=2).
[4][5][6] The Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link calculates a diameter of 13.29 kilometers, assuming an albedo of 0.10, a compromise figure between the brighter stony and darker carbonaceous bodies from the inner and outer asteroid-belt, respectively.