Dr. Alex Harrison Parker

Research scientist in planetary astronomy at the Southwest Research Institute, supporting NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto, and developing the post-Pluto mission into the Kuiper Belt. Expert in the dynamics of binary minor planets, detection and characterization of trans-Neptunian objects, and the origin of the architecture of our Solar System.

First-AUTHOR peer-reviewed papers

Last updated Oct 5, 2021.

[12] Trans-Neptunian Space in the Post-Pluto Paradigm

2021 — Review chapter in “Pluto System After New Horizons.” UA Press.

Alex H. Parker

[11] k-means Aperture Optimization Applied to Kepler K2 Time Series Photometry of Titan

2019 — PASP.

Alex H. Parker, Sarah M. Hörst, Erin L. Ryan, Carly J.A. Howett

[10] Discovery of a Makemakean Moon

2016 — The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Alex H Parker, Marc W Buie, Will M Grundy, Keith S Noll

[9] Physical Characterization of TNOs with JWST

2016 — PASP.

Alex H Parker, Noemi Pinilla-Alonso, Pablo Santos-Sanz, John Stansberry, Alvaro Alvarez-Candal, Michele Bannister, Susan Benecchi, Jason Cook, Wesley Fraser, Will Grundy, Aurelie Guilbert, Bill Merline, Arielle Moullet, Michael Mueller, Cathy Olkin, Darin Ragozzine, Stefanie Milam 

[8] The Intrinsic Neptune Trojan Orbit Distribution: Implications for the Primordial Disk and Planet Migration

2015 — Icarus

Alex H Parker

[7] 2011 HM102: Discovery of a High-inclination L5 Neptune Trojan in the Search for a Post-Pluto New Horizons Target

2013 — The Astronomical Journal 

Alex H Parker, Marc W Buie, David J Osip, Stephen DJ Gwyn, Matthew J Holman, David M Borncamp, John R Spencer, Susan D Benecchi, Richard P Binzel, Francesca E DeMeo, Sébastian Fabbro, Cesar I Fuentes, Pamela L Gay, JJ Kavelaars, Brian A McLeod, Jean-Marc Petit, Scott S Sheppard, S Alan Stern, David J Tholen, David E Trilling, Darin A Ragozzine, Lawrence H Wasserman

[6] Collisional Evolution of Ultra-wide Trans-Neptunian Binaries

2012 — The Astrophysical Journal

Alex H Parker, JJ Kavelaars

[5] Characterization of Seven Ultra-Wide trans-Neptunian Binaries

2011 — The Astrophysical Journal

Alex H Parker, JJ Kavelaars Jean-Marc Petit, Lynne Jones, Brett Gladman, Joel Parker

[4] Destruction of binary minor planets during Neptune scattering

2010 — The Astrophysical Journal Letters

Alex H Parker, JJ Kavelaars

[3] Pencil-beam surveys for trans-neptunian objects: Limits on distant populations

2010 — Icarus

Alex H Parker, JJ Kavelaars

[2] Pencil-beam surveys for trans-neptunian objects: novel methods for optimization and characterization

2010 — Publication of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific

Alex H Parker, JJ Kavelaars

[1] The size distributions of asteroid families in the SDSS Moving Object Catalog 4

2008 — Icarus

Alex H Parker, Ž Ivezić, M Jurić, R Lupton, Michael D Sekora, A Kowalski

Cover art for Icarus November 2008 edition.

Contributing author and PROCEEDINGS

[17] Laboratory Investigations of Titan Haze Formation: In Situ Measurement of Gas and Particle Composition

2017 - Icarus.

Horst, Sarah M.; Yoon, Y. H., Ugelow, M. S., Parker, Alex H., Li, R., de Gouw, J. A., Tolbert, M. A.

[16] Centennial Missions: Conducting Planetary Science on Century Timescales

2017 - Planetary Science Vision 2050 Workshop.

Alex H. Parker. 

[15] Pluto's global surface composition through pixel-by-pixel Hapke modeling of New Horizons Ralph/LEISA data

2017 - Icarus

Protopapa, S., and the New Horizons team.

[14] OSSOS IV: Discovery of a Dwarf Planet Candidate in the 9:2 Resonance with Neptune

2017 - The Astronomical Journal.

Bannister, M. T., and the OSSOS team. 

[13] The Geology of Pluto and Charon Through the Eyes of New Horizons

2016 - Science.

Moore, J. M., and the New Horizons team.

[12] Surface Compositions Across Pluto and Charon

2016 - Science.

Grundy, W. M., and the New Horizons team.

[11] The Atmosphere of Pluto as Observed by New Horizons

2016 - Science.

Gladstone, G. R., and the New Horizons team.

[10] The Small Satellites of Pluto as Observed by New Horizons

2016 - Science.

Weaver, H. A., and the New Horizons team.

[9] The Pluto system: Initial results from its exploration by New Horizons

2015 - Science.

Stern, S. A. and the New Horizons team.

[8] Asteroid Family Physical Properties

2015 - Asteroids IV chapter.

Masiero, J. R., DeMeo, F. E., Kasuga, T., Parker, A. H.

[7] Uncovering the Putative B-Star Binary Companion of the SN 1993J Progenitor

2014 - ApJ.

Fox, O., Bostroem, K. A., Van Dyk, S., Filippenko, A., Fransson, A., Matheson, T., Cenko, S. B., Chandra, P., Dwarkadas, V., Li, W., Parker, A., Smith, N. 

[6] New Horizons: Long-Range Kuiper Belt Targets Observed by the Hubble Space Telescope

2014 - Icarus Special Issue

Benecchi, S., Noll, K., Weaver, H., Spencer, J., Stern, A., Buie, M., Parker, A.

[5] The Absolute Magnitude Distribution of Kuiper Belt Objects

2014 - The Astrophysical Journal

Fraser, W., Brown, M., Morbidelli, A., Parker, A., Batygin, K.

[4] Searching for KBO Flyby Targets for the New Horizons Mission

2012: Asteroids, Comets, Meteors abstract

MW Buie, JR Spencer, Alex H Parker, SA Stern, MJ Holman, DJ Tholen, D Borncamp, DE Trilling, DJ Osip, PL Gay, C Fuentes, JJ Kavelaars, J-M Petit, S Fabbro, SD Benecchi, SS Sheppard, F DeMeo, RP Binzel, LH Wasserman, AJ Steffl, T Fuse, H Karoji, D Kinoshita, T Yanagisawa, S Miyazaki, H Furusawa, F Yoshida, T Yamashida, A Tajitsu

[3] Discovery and Characterization of Trans-Neptunian Binaries in Large-Scale Surveys

2011 - Proceedings of the "Orbital couples: 'Pas de deux' in the Solar System and the Milky Way" workshop, Paris, France, October 10-12.

Alex H Parker

[2] LSST Science Book, Version 2.0

2009 - arXiv preprint arXiv:0912.0201

Alex H Parker contributing author to sections 5.4.2 and 5.5.

[1] Grjotá Valles and implications for flood sediment deposition on Mars

2006 - Geophysical Research Letters

Devon M Burr, Alex H Parker

Sample of Conference Proceedings

Parker, A., Ivezic, Z., Juri ́c, M., Lupton, R. 2007. Asteroid Families in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Moving Object Catalog 209th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Poster.

Hildebrand, A., Parker, A., Kyte, F., Shukolyukov, A., 2008. The Brangane Asteroid Family Disruption: Source of the Late Eocene 2.5 Million Years of Dust Deposition, Impacts, and H Chondrite Meteoroids. Joint Meeting of The Geological Society of America. Oral presentation.

Parker, A., 2008. The Size Distributions of Asteroid Families in the SDSS MOC 4. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey: From Asteroids to Cosmology. Oral presentation.

Parker, A., Kavelaars, JJ., 2009. A Novel Enhancement for Moving Object Pipelines. 41st Meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences. Poster.

Parker, A., Kavelaars, JJ., Jones, L., Gladman, B., Petit, J.-M., Parker, J., 2010. Ultra- Wide Trans-Neptunian Binaries: Orbits, Masses, and Dynamical Lifetimes. 2010 Meeting of the Canadian Astronomical Society. Oral Presentation.

Parker, A., Kavelaars, JJ., Jones, L., Gladman, B., Petit, J.-M., Parker, J., 2010. Ultra- Wide Trans-Neptunian Binaries: Orbits, Masses, and Dynamical Lifetimes. TNO 2010: Dynamical and Physical properties of Trans-Neptunian Objects. Oral Presentation.

Parker, A., Kavelaars, JJ., Jones, L., Gladman, B., Petit, J.-M., Parker, J., 2010. Wide Trans-Neptunian Binaries as Dynamical Tracers. 42nd Meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences. Oral Presentation.

Parker, A., Kavelaars, JJ., 2011. Characterization of Ultra-Wide Trans-Neptunian Bina- ries. 217th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society. PhD Presentation.

Parker, A., 2011. Inclination Distribution of Ultra-Wide Trans Neptunian Binaries. 2011 Meeting of the Canadian Astronomical Society. Oral Presentation.

Parker, A., Kavelaars, JJ., Jones, L., Gladman, B., Petit, J.-M., Parker, J., 2011. Inclina- tion Distribution of Ultra-Wide Trans-Neptunian Binaries. Joint Meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences and the European Planetary Science Congress. Oral Presentation.

Parker, A. 2011. Discovery and Characterization of Trans-Neptunian Binaries in Large- Scale Surveys. Orbital Couples: “Pas De Deux” in the Solar System and the Milky Way.

Buie M., Spencer, J., Parker, A., and 26 co-authors. Searching for KBO Flyby Targets for the New Horizons Mission. Asteroids, Comets, and Meteors, 2012. 

Parker, A. 2012. Epicyclic Phase Folding: A transit photometry method for detecting hierarchical triple systems.. 2012 Sagan exoplanet summer workshop. e-Poster.

Parker, A. and 22 co-authors. Discovery and Characterization of an L5 Neptune Trojan in the Search for a New Horizons Encounter Candidate. 44th Meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences. Oral Presentation.

Fraser, W., Brown, M. E., Morbidelli, A., Parker, A., Batygin, K. The Absolute Magnitude Distributions of the Cold and Hot Kuiper Belt Populations. 44th Meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences. Oral Presentation.

Parker, A. Long-Range Kuiper Belt Object Observations: Prospects and Scientific Value The Pluto System on the Eve of Exploration be New Horizons: Perspectives and Predictions. Oral Presentation.

Parker, A. Characterizing the Neptune Trojan Orbit Distribution 45th Meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences. Oral Presentation.

Parker, A. Updating the Kuiper Belt Luminosity Function with the HST Search for a New Horizons Post-Pluto Target. 2015 LPSC. Poster.

Site content copyright Alex H. Parker, 2009-2021.