Scott S. Sheppard


Scott Sander Sheppard is an American astronomer and a discoverer of numerous moons, comets and minor planets in the outer Solar System.
Astronomer in the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, DC, he attended Oberlin College as an undergraduate and received his bachelor in physics with honors in 1998. Starting as a graduate student at the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii, he was credited with the discovery of many small moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. He has also discovered the first known trailing Neptune trojan,, the first named leading Neptune trojan, 385571 Otrera, and the first high inclination Neptune trojan,. These discoveries showed that the Neptune trojan objects are mostly on highly inclined orbits and thus likely captured small bodies from elsewhere in the Solar System.
The main-belt asteroid 17898 Scottsheppard, discovered by LONEOS at Anderson Mesa Station in 1999, was named in his honor.

Discoveries

Most notable discoveries

Sheppard has been involved in the discovery of many small Solar System bodies such as trans-Neptunian objects, centaurs, comets and near-Earth objects.
;Jupiter
Discovered moons of Jupiter :
;Saturn
Discovered moons of Saturn :
; Uranus
Discovered moons of Uranus :
; Neptune
Discovered moons of Neptune :