Roy A. Tucker
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Roy A. Tucker (born 1951 in
Jackson, Mississippi Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the capital of and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, along with Raymond. The city had a population of 153,701 at t ...
) 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 ...
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&nb ...
(formerly known as ) along with David J. Tholen and Fabrizio Bernardi 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. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...
. 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 nu ...
, credited by the Minor Planet Center 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 ...
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 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 U ...
. 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 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 The Goodricke-Pigott Observatory is a private astronomical observatory in Tucson, Arizona. It was formally dedicated on October 26, 1996, and observations began that evening with imaging of Comet Hale–Bopp. The observatory is named after Joh ...
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, discovered by Paul Comba 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