EDWARD ASHTON

ASTRONOMER

- Nick D'Alto

Jupiter and Saturn had been trading the title for the most moons of any planet in the solar system. In February 2023, Jupiter, the larger planet, pulled ahead. Twelve new moons had been discovered, pushing its total number of moons to 92. But just a few months later, in May, another team of astronomers announced they had found 62 new moons orbiting Saturn (plus one moon a little earlier), bringing its total to 146 moons. This finding, which nearly doubled the number of known Saturn moons, marked the most moons ever discovered at one time.

The astronomer who led the team behind the impressive Saturn moon discovery was Edward Ashton. He began this research while a graduate student at the University of British Columbia in Canada in 2019. He now works as a postdoctoral fellow at the Academia Sinica's Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taiwan. His research focuses on the solar system.

FINDING ALL THESE NEW MOONS WASN'T EXACTLY AN OVERNIGHT DISCOVERY. WHAT WAS THE PROCESS LIKE?