Chad Trujillo
Chadwick A. Trujillo is an American astronomer, discoverer of minor planets and the co-discoverer of Eris, the most massive dwarf planet known in the Solar System.
Trujillo works with computer software and has examined the orbits of the numerous trans-Neptunian objects, 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 Brown and David 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.
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.Between 2000 and 2003 Trujillo was a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech. In 2003, he started working as an astronomer at the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii.
In 2013 Trujillo became head of the Adaptive Optics/Telescope Department at the Gemini Observatory, and continued until 2016. As of 2016, Trujillo is assistant professor at the department of Astronomy and Planetary Science at Northern Arizona University.
He studies the Kuiper belt and the outer Solar System.
Discoveries
Trujillo is credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery and co-discovery of 54 numbered minor planets between 1996 and 2013, including many trans-Neptunian objects from the Kuiper belt '. 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
- , discovery credited to the Sierra Nevada Observatory, Spain
List of discovered minor planets
| ' | October 9, 1996 | |
| ' | October 11, 1996 | |
| February 3, 1997 | ||
| ' | October 12, 1996 | |
| ' | October 8, 1996 | |
| ' | August 28, 1997 | |
| ' | April 28, 1998 | |
| ' | February 20, 1999 | |
| ' | February 6, 1997 | |
| 50000 Quaoar | June 4, 2002 |
| 90482 Orcus | February 17, 2004 | |
| September 8, 1999 | ||
| ' | October 8, 1996 | |
| ' | May 17, 2002 | |
| ' | July 26, 2003 | |
| ' | October 3, 2004 | |
| ' | December 18, 2001 | |
| ' | December 20, 2001 | |
| February 10, 1999 | ||
| September 7, 1999 |
| ' | September 6, 1999 | |
| ' | January 13, 2003 | |
| May 19, 2002 | ||
| May 17, 2002 | ||
| June 18, 2002 | ||
| 341520 Mors-Somnus | October 14, 2007 | |
| September 7, 1999 | ||
| 385571 Otrera | October 16, 2004 | |
| 385695 Clete | October 8, 2005 | |
| September 7, 1999 |
| 17 March 2013 | ||
| 541132 Leleākūhonua | 13 October 2015 |
Satellites and uncredited discoveries
| Object | Discovery date | Type | Credit went to.. |
| Haumea | December 28, 2004 | DP | José Luis Ortiz Moreno et al. |
| January 10, 2002 | TNO | The Palomar Observatory team with Michael Brown | |
| November 5, 2012 | TNO | no official discoverers for unnumbered objects; candidate: S. S. Sheppard | |
| Haumea I Hiʻiaka | January 26, 2005 | Satellite | Michael Brown and the adaptive-optics team, D. L. Rabinowitz |
| Haumea II Namaka | July 30, 2005 | Satellite | Michael Brown and the adaptive-optics team |
| Eris I Dysnomia | September 10, 2005 | Satellite | Michael Brown and the adaptive-optics team: M. A. van Dam, A. H. Bouchez, D. Le Mignant, R. D. Campbell, J. C. Y. Chin, A. Conrad, S. K. Hartman, E. M. Johansson, R. E. Lafon, D. L. Rabinowitz, P. J. Stomski Jr., D. M. Summers, and P. L. Wizinowich |
Honors and awards
The main-belt asteroid 12101 Trujillo is named for him.In 2006 he was named one of the Science Spectrum Magazine Trailblazer, top minority in science.