Named in honor of Torrence V. Johnson, planetary scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who is best known for his systematic investigations of the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn, both by means of ground-based telescopes and the data returned from the Voyager missions. He is also well known for his photometric observations of minor planets. (M 6957) _ _.
Discovered on 11-6-1980 in Palomar by Shoemaker, C. S.