54509 YORP (provisional designation 2000 PH5) is an Earth co-orbital asteroid[5] discovered on 3 August 2000 by the Lincoln Laboratory Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) Team at Lincoln Laboratory Experimental Test Site in Socorro, New Mexico. Measurements of the rotation rate of this object provided the first observational evidence of the YORP effect, hence the name of the asteroid. The asteroid's rate of rotation is increasing at the rate of (2.0 ± 0.2) × 10−4 deg/day2 which between 2001 and 2005 caused the asteroid to rotate about 250° further than its spin rate in 2001 would have predicted.[4] Simulations of the asteroid suggest that it may reach a rotation period of ~20 seconds near the end of its expected lifetime, which has a 75% probability of happening within the next 35 million years.[6] The simulations also ruled out the possibility that close encounters with the Earth have been the cause of the increased spin rate.[6]
Radar image and 3D model of YORP
| |
| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | LINEAR |
| Discovery site | Lincoln Lab's ETS |
| Discovery date | 3 August 2000 |
| Designations | |
| (54509) YORP | |
Named after | YORP effect |
| 2000 PH5 | |
Apollo  NEO | |
| Orbital characteristics[2][3] | |
| Epoch 20 March 2003 (JD 2452718.5) | |
| Uncertainty parameter 0 | |
| Observation arc | 1826 days (5.00 yr) |
| Aphelion | 1.22998 AU (184.002 Gm) |
| Perihelion | 0.77013 AU (115.210 Gm) |
| 1.00005 AU (149.605 Gm) | |
| Eccentricity | 0.22991 |
| 1.00 yr (365.29 d) | |
Average orbital speed | 29.31 km/s |
| 314.13265° | |
| 0° 59m 7.901s / day | |
| Inclination | 1.83313° |
| 281.88673° | |
| 274.101° | |
| Earth MOID | 0.00268922 AU (402,302 km) |
| Jupiter MOID | 3.72701 AU (557.553 Gm) |
| TJupiter | 6.056 |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 150×128×93 m[4] |
| 0.2029 h (12.17 min) | |
| 0.2029 h 12.174 min[3] | |
| 173°[4] | |
Pole ecliptic latitude | −85°[4] |
Pole ecliptic longitude | 180°[4] |
| 0.10? | |
| Temperature | ~278 K |
| 22.7 | |
On 2 January 2104, asteroid YORP will pass 0.00526 AU (787,000 km; 489,000 mi) from Earth.[7]
YORP is the largest member of a candidate asteroid family, another member of which is 2017 FZ2, that would have been formed through shedding of fragments of YORP or the breakup of a larger progenitor due to the YORP effect.[8]
