Nisha Rathode (Editor)

Chad Trujillo

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Name
  
Chad Trujillo


Role
  
Astronomer

Chad Trujillo httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Education
  
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Hawaii at Manoa

Similar People
  
David L Rabinowitz, Scott S Sheppard, Michael E Brown, David C Jewitt, Jane Luu

Chad Trujillo | Wikipedia audio article


Chadwick A. "Chad" Trujillo (born November 22, 1973) is an American astronomer, discoverer of minor planets and the co-discoverer of Eris, the most massive dwarf planet known in the Solar System.

Contents

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 in 2003. As a result of the discovery of the satellite Dysnomia, Eris was the first TNO known to be more massive than Pluto.

Sedna or Solar System Planet No:10


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

Trujillo is credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery and co-discovery of 50 numbered minor planets between 1996 and 2007, including many trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) from the Kuiper belt (see table). 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, co-discovered with Brown
  • Sedna , co-discovered with Brown and Rabinowitz, possibly the first known inner Oort cloud object
  • Orcus, co-discovered with Brown and Rabinowitz
  • Eris, co-discovered with Brown and Rabinowitz – the only known TNO more massive than Pluto
  • Haumea, discovery credited to the Sierra Nevada Observatory, Spain (also see José Luis Ortiz Moreno).
  • Makemake, co-discovered with Brown and Rabinowitz in 2005, one of the first 5 official dwarf planets.

    • References

    Chad Trujillo Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


    Similar Topics