The Historic Hunt for Moons

Mercury, March/April 2001 Table of Contents

Improving telescopes and techniques have spurred the discovery of new satellites.

by William Sheehan

When Galileo pointed his primitive 2-inch refractor at Jupiter in 1610, little did he know that he would start a great moon chase that continues to the present day. Galileo discovered four moons orbiting Jupiter, forcing people to change their conception of the universe. As telescopes and techniques improved, astronomers found more and more moons around other planets. Today, astronomers have found nearly 100 planetary satellites.

This article traces the history of moon discoveries from Galileo’s day to the late 1990s. Along the way, it talks about the great moon discoverers, people like Giovanni Cassini, William Herschel, William Lassell, Asaph Hall, Seth Nicholson, and Gerard Kuiper. The article explains the new technologies that made new moon discoveries possible. A table at the end of the article lists all of the moons discovered through the end of 2000, along with the discoverers, year of discovery, and basic data.

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