In February 1984, a rotational lightcurve of Gagarin obtained by American astronomer Richard P. Binzel gave a rotation period of 10.96 hours with a brightness variation of 0.24 magnitude (). Photometric observations at the Californian Palomar Transient Factory in December 2011, gave a 10.9430 hours with an amplitude of 0.41 (). in 2001 and 2016, additional lightcurve were obtained from modeled photometric data, giving a period of 10.94130 and 10.93791 hours ().
