Named in honor of Sophie Kovalevskaya (1850–1891), the first Russian woman mathematician, associate member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, widely known for her researches on differential equations, Abelian integrals and the rotational motion of solid bodies. (M 3826) _ _.
Discovered on 4-9-1972 in Nauchnyj by Zhuravleva, L. V.