Scott S. Sheppard

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Scott Sander Sheppard (born 1977) is an American astronomer and a discoverer of numerous moons, comets and minor planets in the outer Solar System.<ref name="springer" /><ref name="circ8962" /><ref name="jpl-Satellite-Discovery-Circumstances" />

He is an 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.<ref name="CV" />Template:Better source needed Starting as a graduate student at the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, 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, Template:Mpl, the first named leading Neptune trojan, 385571 Otrera, and the first high inclination Neptune trojan, Template:Mpl. 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.<ref name="springer" />

DiscoveriesEdit

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Minor planets discovered: 23<ref name="MPC-Discoverers" />Template:Needs update
Template:Mpl	15 February 1999	Template:Small Template:Ref label Template:Ref label Template:Ref label
Template:Mp	9 December 2001	Template:Small Template:Ref label Template:Ref label
Template:Mpl	9 December 2001	Template:Small Template:Ref label Template:Ref label
Template:Mpl	11 December 2001	Template:Small Template:Ref label Template:Ref label
Template:Mpl	9 December 2001	Template:Small Template:Ref label Template:Ref label
Template:Mp	2 April 2000	Template:Small Template:Ref label Template:Ref label
Template:Mp	9 December 2001	Template:Small
341520 Mors–Somnus	14 October 2007	Template:Small Template:Ref label
385571 Otrera	16 October 2004	Template:Small Template:Ref label
385695 Clete	8 October 2005	Template:Small Template:Ref label
Template:Mp	10 December 2001	Template:Small Template:Ref label Template:Ref label
Template:Mp	9 December 2001	Template:Small Template:Ref label Template:Ref label
471143 Dziewanna	13 March 2010	Template:Small Template:Ref label Template:Ref label Template:Ref label
Template:Mp	21 April 2010	Template:Small Template:Ref label Template:Ref label Template:Ref label
Template:Mp	17 March 2013	Template:Small Template:Ref label
Template:Mp	31 March 2000	Template:Small Template:Ref label Template:Ref label
Template:Mp	16 March 2013	Template:Small
Template:Mp	16 March 2013	Template:Small
Template:Mp	24 March 2014	Template:Small
Template:Mp	10 December 2001	Template:Small Template:Ref label Template:Ref label
Template:Mp	10 December 2001	Template:Small Template:Ref label Template:Ref label
Template:Mpl	17 March 2013	Template:Small Template:Ref label
Template:Mp	17 March 2013	Template:Small Template:Ref label
541132 Leleākūhonua	13 October 2015	Template:Small Template:Ref label Template:Ref label
Template:Mpl	13 August 2021	Template:MPC
Template:Mpl	13 January 2022	Template:MPC<ref name="MPEC2022-B21">{{#invoke:citation/CS1\|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Template:Note label with J. X. Luu Template:Note label with D. C. Jewitt Template:Note label with Chadwick Trujillo Template:Note label with J. T. Kleyna Template:Note label with A. Udalski Template:Note label with M. Kubiak Template:Note label with R. Poleski Template:Note label with D. J. Tholen

Sheppard was the lead discoverer of the object with the most distant orbit known in the Solar System, Template:Mpl (nicknamed Biden). In 2014, the similarity of the orbit of Template:Mp to other extreme Kuiper belt object orbits led Sheppard and Trujillo to propose that an unknown Super-Earth mass planet (2–15 Earth masses) in the outermost Solar System beyond 200 AU and up to 1500 AU is shepherding these smaller bodies into similar orbits (see Planet X or Planet Nine). The extreme trans-Neptunian objects Template:Mpl and Template:Mpl, announced in 2016 and co-discovered by Sheppard, further show a likely unknown massive planet exists beyond a few hundred AU in the Solar System, with Template:Mp being the first known high semi-major axis and high perihelion object anti-aligned with the other known extreme objects. In 2018, the announcement of the high perihelion inner Oort cloud object 541132 Leleākūhonua (nicknamed "The Goblin") by Sheppard et al., being only the third known after Template:Mp and Sedna, further demonstrated that a super-Earth planet in the distant solar system likely exists as Leleākūhonua has many orbital similarities as the two other known inner Oort cloud objects.

Most notable discoveriesEdit

Sheppard has been involved in the discovery of many small Solar System bodies such as trans-Neptunian objects, centaurs, comets and near-Earth objects.

Three comets are named after him which are Sheppard-Trujillo (C/2014 F3), Sheppard-Tholen (C/2015 T5) and comet Trujillo-Sheppard (P/2018 V5).
The possible dwarf planets discovered by Sheppard are 471143 Dziewanna, Template:Mpl, Template:Mpl, Template:Mpl, Template:Mpl and Template:Mpl.
In 2018, Sheppard was the lead discoverer of the most distant observed object in our solar system and first object observed beyond 100 AU, dwarf planet Template:Mpl (nicknamed Farout), which is around 120 AU from the Sun.
He discovered a minor-planet moon around likely dwarf planet Template:Mpl.
He is also a co-discoverer of a minor-planet moon orbiting the binary trans-Neptunian object 341520 Mors–Somnus.<ref name="circ8962" />
Among the numerous irregular moons of the major planets in whose discovery he has been involved are:<ref name="jpl-Satellite-Discovery-Circumstances" />