Chad Trujillo

Trans-Neptunian objects discovered: 12
(50000) Quaoar [1]	June 4, 2002
(84719) 2002 VR128 [1]	November 3, 2002
(90377) Sedna [1] [2]	November 14, 2003
(90482) Orcus [1] [2]	February 17, 2004
(119951) 2002 KX14 [1]	May 17, 2002
(120178) 2003 OP32 [1] [2]	July 26, 2003
(120348) 2004 TY364 [1] [2]	October 3, 2004
(126154) 2001 YH140 [1]	December 18, 2001
[1] [3]	December 20, 2001
(136108) Haumea [1] [2] [4]	December 28, 2004
(136472) Makemake [1] [2]	March 31, 2005
Eris [1] [2]	January 8, 2005
1 with Michael E. Brown 2 with David L. Rabinowitz 3 with Glenn Smith 4 credit disputed by José Luis Ortiz Moreno et al.

Chadwick A. "Chad" Trujillo (born 22 November 1973) is an 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.^[1]

Early 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 [1]. He studies the Kuiper belt and the outer solar system.

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^[1]
• Haumea
• Makemake

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Michael E. Brown and Emily L. Schaller (2007). "The Mass of Dwarf Planet Eris" (abstract page). Science 316 (5831): 1585. Bibcode 2007Sci...316.1585B. doi:10.1126/science.1139415. PMID 17569855. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/316/5831/1585. 

• Trujillo's home page

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Name	Trujillo, Chad
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Date of birth	November 22, 1973
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