Former Australian miner spotted Saturn ripple, helped discover 10-sided wave

A mysterious ripple spotted on Saturn from an amateur astronomer's backyard in Australia has helped lead to the identification of a giant, 10-sided atmospheric wave around the planet's south pole. Trevor Barry, a former miner from Broken Hill, New South Wales, had been observing Saturn from his homemade backyard observatory when he noticed an unusual feature in 2024. His observations became part of an international research effort that ultimately confirmed the structure using years of observations from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The findings were published in the journal Science Advances. According to NASA, the feature is the first large, regular-sided jet pattern identified in Saturn's southern hemisphere.From a backyard telescope to a planetary discoveryBarry has been observing the night sky and collecting planetary images from his observatory in Broken Hill since the early 2000s.