(54509) YORP The Committee for Small Body Nomenclature (CSBN) of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) announced the name "YORP" for the asteroid numbered 54509, also known by its provisional designation 2000 PH5. This is to honor the scientists involved in the description of the effect and to recognize that observations of this asteroid provided the first observational evidence for YORP.

The citation was proposed by JLM with the support of the LINEAR team. It has been approved by the CSBN and was officially announced on 2007 April 2.


(54509) YORP = 2000 PH5
      Discovered 2000 Aug. 3 by the Lincoln Laboratory Near-Earth
Asteroid Research Team at Socorro.
      This naming collectively honors Ivan O. Yarkovsky, John A. O'Keefe,
V. V. Radzievskij and Stephen J. Paddack, who were instrumental to the
realization that radiation torques due to sunlight can affect the spin
states of minor planets.  Data on this object provided the first direct
observational evidence for the YORP effect.