It was discovered on 5 March 1992, by astronomer of the Spacewatch program at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, United States.

[1] GNU has been characterized as a dark D-type asteroid by Pan-STARRS' survey and in the SDSS-based taxonomy.

[5] In September and October 2012, two rotational lightcurves of GNU were obtained from photometric observations by astronomers at the Palomar Transient Factory in California.

Lightcurve analysis gave a rotation period of 39.720 and 39.745 hours, with a brightness amplitude of 0.36 and 0.42 magnitude in the R- and S-band, respectively (U=2/2).

[9] While not being a slow rotator, GNU' period is significantly longer than the average spin rate of 2 to 20 hours, seen among the majority of asteroids.