It was discovered on 26 December 2006, by Alex Gibbs, an American software engineer with the Catalina Sky Survey, who named it after his father and renowned physicist Hyatt M.
[2] Hyatt has not been observed by any of the space-based surveys such as the Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS, the Japanese Akari satellite, and NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer with its subsequent NEOWISE mission.
Based on a generic magnitude-to-diameter conversion, it measures approximately 7.4 kilometers in diameter for an absolute magnitude of 14.4, and an assumed albedo of 0.057.
[2] This minor planet was named by the discoverer after his father, Hyatt M. Gibbs (1938–2012), who was a physicist and professor at the University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences.
[1] The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 3 July 2012 (M.P.C.