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, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...
best known for the co-discovery of
near-Earth asteroid
99942 Apophis (formerly known as ) along with
David J. Tholen
David James Tholen (born 1955) is an American astronomer at the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawaii. He holds a 1984 PhD from the University of Arizona, and specializes in planetary and Solar System astronomy. He is a discovere ...
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 by t ...
of the
University of Hawaii.
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 numb ...
, 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, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...
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 seat of 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 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...
. 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 university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...
. 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.
T ...
and as an instrumentalist at
Kitt Peak National Observatory.
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 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. I ...
, 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
This is a list of minor-planet discoverers credited by the Minor Planet Center with the disco ...
in 1997, was named in his honor.
List of discovered minor planets
References
Further reading
* Aguirre, Edwin L. 1999. ''Sentinel of the Sky - Armed with a Modest Telescope and CCD Camera, Tucson Amateur Roy A Tucker Joins the Ranks of Professional Astronomers Who Have Discovered Near-Earth Objects. Sky and Telescope''. 97, no. 3: 76.
* CCD Precision Photometry Workshop, Eric R. Craine, Roy A. Tucker, Jeannette V. Barnes. ''CCD Precision Photometry Workshop: Proceedings of a Meeting Held at San Diego, California, USA, 6-7, June 1998''. Astronomical Society of the Pacific conference series, v. 189. San Francisco, Calif: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 1999.
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