John J. Kavelaars


J-John Kavelaars, better known as JJ Kavelaars, is a Canadian astronomer who was part of a team that discovered several moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. He is also a discoverer of minor planets and an investigator on the extended New Horizons mission, having aided in the discovery of 486958 Arrokoth.

Biography

Kavelaars is a graduate of the Glencoe District High School in Glencoe, Ontario, the University of Guelph, and Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario. He is currently an astronomer at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria, B.C.
In the course of his work, he has been responsible for the discovery of eleven satellites of Saturn, eight of Uranus, and four of Neptune, and a hundred or so minor planets. Kavelaars is the Coordinator of the Canada–France Ecliptic Plane Survey which is part of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey "CFHTLS": a project dedicated to the discovery and tracking of objects in the outer Solar System.

Family

He is the brother of Canadian actress Ingrid Kavelaars and Canadian fencing athlete Monique Kavelaars.

Honors

The asteroid 154660 Kavelaars was named in his honour on 1 June 2007 by his colleague David D. Balam.

List of discovered minor planets