Chad Trujillo

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Chad Trujillo

Chadwick A. "Chad" Trujillo (born November 22, 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. This was the first TNO known to be larger than the planet Pluto. Later in 2005, the TNO was revealed to have a moon.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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 status.

These objects include:

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) — first discovered TNO larger than Pluto.