54509 YORP, provisional designation , is an
Earth co-orbital asteroid
In astronomy, a co-orbital configuration is a configuration of two or more astronomical objects (such as asteroids, moons, or planets) orbiting at the same, or very similar, distance from their primary, i.e. they are in a 1:1 mean-motion resonance ...
discovered on 3 August 2000 by the Lincoln Laboratory Near-Earth Asteroid Research (
LINEAR
Linearity is the property of a mathematical relationship (''function'') that can be graphically represented as a straight line. Linearity is closely related to '' proportionality''. Examples in physics include rectilinear motion, the linear r ...
) Team at
Lincoln Laboratory Experimental Test Site
The MIT Lincoln Laboratory, located in Lexington, Massachusetts, is a United States Department of Defense federally funded research and development center chartered to apply advanced technology to problems of national security. Research and dev ...
in Socorro, New Mexico. Measurements of the rotation rate of this object provided the first observational evidence of the
YORP effect Yorp or YORP may refer to one of the following:
* 54509 YORP, an Earth co-orbital asteroid
*Yarkovsky–O'Keefe–Radzievskii–Paddack effect, a second-order variation on the Yarkovsky effect
*Yorps, friendly one-eyed Martians from the Commander Ke ...
, 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.
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 harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
have been the cause of the increased spin rate.
[
On 2 January 2104, asteroid YORP will pass from Earth.][
]
Gallery
See also
* 1620 Geographos
* 1862 Apollo
* 25143 Itokawa
25143 Itokawa (provisional designation ) is a sub-kilometer near-Earth object of the Apollo group and a potentially hazardous asteroid. It was discovered by the LINEAR program in 1998 and later named after Japanese rocket engineer Hideo Itokawa ...
References
Further reading
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External links
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