Over the last decade, the number of moons orbiting Saturn has risen dramatically from just 62 to an astounding 274. Astronomer Edward Ashton, who has discovered 192 of these, employs advanced imaging techniques to identify these moons, particularly using a method called shifting and stacking. This involves taking sequential images to pinpoint the moons' movements against a static star background. Ashton's work, stemming from a Ph.D. suggestion in 2018, exemplifies the rich discoveries being made in astronomy today, aided greatly by instruments like the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope.
To detect the moons, we use a technique known as shifting and stacking. We take 44 sequential images of the same patch of sky over a three-hour period because, in that time frame, the moons move relative to the stars at a rate similar to Saturn.
Ashton is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taiwan. He fell into hunting for Saturn's moons in 2018, when his then academic adviser suggested the project for his Ph.D. at the University of British Columbia.
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