Chad Trujillo

Trans-Neptunian objects discovered: 17
(79360) Sila-Nunam,	February 3, 1997
(181902) 1999 RD215	September 6, 1999
(126154) 2001 YH140	December 18, 2001
(126155) 2001 YJ140	December 20, 2001
(119951) 2002 KX14	May 17, 2002
(50000) Quaoar	June 4, 2002
(84719) 2002 VR128	November 3, 2002
(90377) Sedna	November 14, 2003
(90482) Orcus	February 17, 2004
(120178) 2003 OP32	July 26, 2003
(120348) 2004 TY364	October 3, 2004
(136108) Haumea	December 28, 2004
(136199) Eris	January 8, 2005
(136472) Makemake	March 31, 2005
(341520) Mors-Somnus	October 14, 2007
(385201) 1999 RN215	September 7, 1999
385571 Otrera	October 16, 2004
(385695) 2005 TO74	October 8, 2005
(415720) 1999 RU215	September 7, 1999
1 with Michael E. Brown 2 with David L. Rabinowitz 3 with Glenn Smith 4 credit disputed by José Luis Ortiz Moreno et al. 5 with J. X. Luu 6 with D. C. Jewitt 7 with J. Chen 8 with S. S. Sheppard

Chadwick A. "Chad" Trujillo (born November 22, 1973) is an American astronomer and the co-discoverer of the dwarf planet Eris.

Trujillo works with computer software and has examined the orbits of the numerous trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), which is the outer area of the solar system that he specialized in. In late August 2005, it was announced that Trujillo, along with Michael E. Brown and David L. Rabinowitz, had discovered Eris. As a result of the discovery of the satellite Dysnomia, Eris was the first TNO known to be more massive than Pluto.

Career

Trujillo attended Oak Park and River Forest High School in Oak Park, Illinois. He received his B.Sc. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1995, and was a member of the Xi chapter of Tau Epsilon Phi, and received his Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Hawaii in 2000.

Trujillo was later a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech, and is currently an astronomer at the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii. He studies the Kuiper belt and the outer solar system. The main-belt asteroid 12101 Trujillo is named for him.

List of discoveries

He has discovered several trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). The last major TNO, Eris, was considered by him, his team, NASA, and many others to be the tenth planet, but the International Astronomical Union assigned it to the new dwarf planet and plutoid status.

The known plutoids are:

• Quaoar (with Brown)
• Sedna (with Brown and Rabinowitz), possibly the first known inner Oort cloud object
• Orcus (with Brown and Rabinowitz)
• Eris (with Brown and Rabinowitz), the only known TNO more massive than Pluto
• Haumea
• Makemake

External links

• Official website