Amateur astronomer Trevor Barry from Broken Hill, NSW, has contributed to a world-first discovery of a decagon wave around Saturn's south pole. The discovery was announced in a paper published in the Science Advances journal and is co-authored by Barry, who has been monitoring Saturn from his backyard observatory since the early 2000s. According to the article, the discovery was made possible through Barry's data collection, which he shared with researchers, including NASA's Amy Simon, a co-author on the paper. A decagon wave is similar to the hexagonal wave that spins around Saturn's North Pole, but it's the first time such a large jet pattern has been observed in Saturn's southern hemisphere.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-06,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
In short:
An amateur astronomer living in outback NSW is a co-author of a paper announcing the discovery of a decagon wave around Saturn's south pole.
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astronomer → live → pole
Trevor Barry says he is proud that his hometown of Broken Hill, where he used to work as a miner and has built his observatory, is listed in the discovery.
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he → say → discovery
Much is still unknown about the decagon, including how it formed or whether it is permanent, but Mr Barry will continue to monitor it closely from his backyard.
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Barry → include → backyard
From a backyard in outback NSW in 2024, a former mine worker spotted something mysterious in the sky on his favourite planet, Saturn.
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worker → spot → planet
Two years later, Trevor Barry is among the co-authors of a peer-reviewed paper published in the Science Advances journal about a world-first discovery of a decagon wave around Saturn's south pole.
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Barry → review → pole
In his homemade observatory in Broken Hill, "Terrestrial Trevor", as he is affectionately known, has been capturing data since the early 2000s.
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"From 2024, mid 2024, I started to capture what I described to my professor as a ripple impinging down, bright spots forming a ripple that impinged down into the south polar collar of Saturn," Mr Barry said.
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Barry → start → Saturn
He sent what he had captured to professor Agustín Sánchez-Lavega in Spain, whom he has been working with since 2008.
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he → send → 2008
"Agustín got back to me, and he said, 'Well, Trev, never mind ripple, think wave and don't circulate it,' because Amy Simon – who we also work with at NASA Goddard [Space Flight Center] — in her 2023 data, like Hubble [telescope] images, she was seeing the beginning of a formation of a structure.
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"
The discovery of the 10-sided atmospheric wave is the first time a large jet pattern has been observed in Saturn's southern hemisphere.
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pattern → observe → hemisphere
It is similar to the hexagonal wave that spins like a hurricane on Saturn's North Pole, which was discovered in 1980 and 1981 by NASA's Voyager flybys.
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which → spin → flybys
"[Saturn] has a very unique feature at the north pole, a hexagon; there is no structure like that ever seen anywhere else in the solar system," Mr Barry said.
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Barry → have → system
"The fact that now a decagon has formed at the south pole, this is a world-first discovery of a feature never before seen on a planet in our solar system."
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this → form → system
He said once he knew of the importance of the feature, he started making polar projections from the data he collected from the perspective of looking straight down at the south pole.
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"It has to be very good data.
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I capture a lot of data, but I had to have very stable air to actually reveal this," Mr Barry said.
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"It's great to be a part of this and to be able to produce data of high enough resolution and value to be included in a new discovery, a whole new discovery."
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'One of NASA's premier Saturn observers'
Amy Simon, planetary scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, is also a co-author on the paper and has worked with Mr Barry for several years, using his data and measurements for many of their papers.
"
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He gives us very, very meticulous reports, his images are really great and he really tracks this stuff over
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time,"Dr Simon said.
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She says amateur astronomers were the first to notice the formation as Saturn's southern hemisphere became more visible.
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hemisphere → say → formation
This is because Saturn sits on a tilted axis, similar to the Earth, and as the planets orbit around the Sun, we see less of one hemisphere than the other.
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we → sit → other
Dr Simon said that data from people like Mr Barry was crucial to fill in gaps as the Hubble Telescope can not be used all the time.
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"Having an observatory that gives very consistent results, high quality images, really does help us understand when something forms or whether it was just one bad observation."
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it → have → results
She added that what makes Mr Barry special was his detail.
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So when he spots something he records where it was, what time he saw it [and] what he saw," she said.
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she → spot → what
"He'll track it over time, and that really makes it a lot easier for us to say 'yes, that is real'.
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that → track → time
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Broken Hill gets a mention
Mr Barry, who left high school in Year 10 and is now in his 70s, is no stranger to acclaim, having won national and international awards for his work.
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who → get → work
But for him, seeing his hometown of Broken Hill and his homemade observatory listed alongside NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of California is what makes him most proud.
"I love that Broken Hill gets a mention in this [research paper]," he said.
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he → see → paper
"All the other authors are professors or PhDs but there's Trevor the mine worker from Broken Hill,"Mr Barry said.
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The Broken Hill Library, which also features his book, Outback Astronomer, has printed and displayed copies of the research paper for locals to read.
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locals → feature → paper
Much is still not known about the decagon, such as how exactly it formed or if it is permanent, so the work continues.
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work → know → decagon
"We don't know if this is also going to become a very stable feature.
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this → know → ?
It's just one of those things that keeps my appetite for what I do going," Mr Barry said.
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Barry → keep → what
"Who knows what else might happen, but trust me, there'll be eyes from Broken Hill."
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what → know → Hill