Name Roy Tucker | Role Astronomer | |
Roy A. Tucker (born 1951 in Jackson, Mississippi) is an American astronomer best known for the co-discovery of near-Earth asteroid 99942 Apophis (formerly known as 2004 MN4) along with David J. Tholen and Fabrizio Bernardi of the University of Hawaii. He is a prolific discoverer of minor planets, credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of 702 numbered minor planets between 1996 and 2010. He has also discovered two comets: 328P/LONEOS–Tucker and C/2004 Q1, a Jupiter-family and near-parabolic comet, respectively.
Tucker was raised in Memphis, Tennessee. 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. He works as a senior engineer in the Imaging Technology Laboratory of the University of Arizona and as an instrumentalist at Kitt Peak National Observatory. He observes and discovers minor planets at his private Goodricke-Pigott Observatory in southern Arizona.
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, discovered by Paul Comba in 1997, was named in his honor.