54509 YORP (
provisional designation ) is an
Earth co-orbital asteroid discovered on 3 August 2000 by the Lincoln Laboratory Near-Earth Asteroid Research (
LINEAR
In mathematics, the term ''linear'' is used in two distinct senses for two different properties:
* linearity of a '' function'' (or '' mapping'');
* linearity of a '' polynomial''.
An example of a linear function is the function defined by f(x) ...
) 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/day
2 which between 2001 and 2005 caused the asteroid to rotate about 250° further than its spin rate in 2001 would have predicted.
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.
The simulations also ruled out the possibility that close encounters with the
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...
have been the cause of the increased spin rate.
[
On 2 January 2104, asteroid YORP will pass within from Earth (about twice the distance to the Moon).][
YORP is the largest member of a candidate ]asteroid family
An asteroid family is a population of asteroids that share similar proper orbital elements, such as semimajor axis, eccentricity, and orbital inclination. The members of the families are thought to be fragments of past asteroid collisions. An ...
, another member of which is , that would have been formed through shedding of fragments of YORP or the breakup of a larger progenitor due to the YORP effect.
Gallery
See also
* Horseshoe orbit
* Earth co-orbital asteroid
* 1620 Geographos
* 1862 Apollo
* 25143 Itokawa
* 2002 AA29
* 2003 YN107
* (419624)_2010_SO16
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
*
*
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Named minor planets
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Horseshoe orbit