Roy A. Tucker (born 1951 in

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the Capital city, capital of and the List of municipalities in Mississippi, most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, Mississippi, ...

) is an American

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either o ...

best known for the co-discovery of near-Earth asteroid

99942 Apophis 99942 Apophis is a near-Earth asteroid and potentially hazardous asteroid with a diameter of that caused a brief period of concern in December 2004 when initial observations indicated a probability up to 2.7% that it would hit Earth on April&nbs ...

(formerly known as ) along with

David J. Tholen David James Tholen (born 1955) is an American astronomer at the Institute for Astronomy (Hawaii), Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawaii. He holds a 1984 PhD from the University of Arizona, and specializes in planetary science, plan ...

and

Fabrizio Bernardi Fabrizio Bernardi (born 1972) is an Italian astronomer and discoverer of minor planets and comets, best known for the co-discovery of the near-Earth and potentially hazardous asteroid 99942 Apophis. He is a member of the IAU, and credited ...

of the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

. He is a prolific

discoverer of minor planets This is a list of minor-planet discoverers credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of one or several minor planets (such as near-Earth and main-belt asteroids, Jupiter trojans and distant objects). , the discovery of 612,011 num ...

, credited by the

Minor Planet Center The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Function ...

with the discovery of 702 numbered minor planets between 1996 and 2010. He has also discovered two

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma, and sometimes also a Comet ta ...

s: 328P/LONEOS–Tucker and C/2004 Q1, a Jupiter-family and near-parabolic comet, respectively.

Biography

Tucker was raised in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the County seat, seat of Shelby County, Tennessee, Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 Uni ...

. In 1966, he became a member of Memphis Astronomical Society and received a master's degree in Scientific Instrumentation from the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the ...

. He worked as a senior engineer in the ''Imaging Technology Laboratory'' of the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. ...

and as an instrumentalist at

Kitt Peak National Observatory The Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) is a United States astronomical observatory located on Kitt Peak of the Quinlan Mountains in the Arizona-Sonoran Desert on the Tohono Oʼodham Nation, west-southwest of Tucson, Arizona. With more than ...

. He observed and discovered minor planets at his private Goodricke-Pigott Observatory in southern Arizona.

Recognition

In 2002, he was one of five researchers awarded a "Gene Shoemaker Near Earth Object Grant", by the

Planetary Society The Planetary Society is an American internationally-active non-governmental nonprofit organization. It is involved in research, public outreach, and political space advocacy for engineering projects related to astronomy, planetary science, a ...

. The main-belt asteroid

10914 Tucker 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

, discovered by

Paul Comba Paul G. Comba (1926 – April 5, 2017) was an Italian-American computer scientist, an amateur astronomer and a prolific discoverer of minor planets. He was born in Tunisia to Italian parents in 1926, and moved to Italy at a young age. Admitted ...

in 1997, was named in his honor.

List of discovered minor planets

References

External links

Goodricke-Pigott Observatory

First person narrative. {{DEFAULTSORT:Tucker, Roy 1951 births American astronomers Discoverers of asteroids Discoverers of comets * Living people People from Jackson, Mississippi University of Arizona University of California, Santa Barbara alumni

Biography

Recognition

List of discovered minor planets

References

Further reading

External links