Chad Trujillo
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Chadwick A. "Chad" Trujillo (born November 22, 1973), is the co-discoverer of Template:Mpl, which he claims to be the Tenth Planet.
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 Template:Mpl. This was the first TNO known to be larger than the planet Pluto. Later in 2005, the TNO was revealed to have a moon.
Early career
Trujillo attended Oak Park and River Forest High School in Oak Park, Illinois. He later was 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.
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. Trujillo received his Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Hawaii in 2000.
List of discoveries
He has discovered several trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). The last major TNO, temporary called Template:Mp, is considered by him, his team, NASA, and many others to be the fabled Tenth Planet, but the International Astronomical Union has yet to confirm its status.
These objects include:
- 50000 Quaoar (with Brown)
- 90377 Sedna (with Brown and Rabinowitz) — possibly the first known inner Oort cloud object.
- 90482 Orcus (with Brown and Rabinowitz)
- Template:Mpl (with Brown and Rabinowitz) — first discovered TNO larger than Pluto.