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.
Chad Trujillo
Eris is the most massive and second-largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System. It is a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) in the scattered disk and has a high-eccentricity orbit. Eris was discovered in January 2005 by a Palomar Observatory–based team led by Mike Brown and verified later that year. In September 2006, it was named after the Greco–Roman goddess of strife and discord. Eris is the ninth-most massive known object orbiting the Sun and the sixteenth-most massive overall in the Solar System. It is also the largest known object in the solar system that has not been visited by a spacecraft. Eris has been measured at 2,326 ± 12 kilometers (1,445 ± 7 mi) in diameter; its mass is 0.28% that of the Earth and 27% greater than that of Pluto, although Pluto is slightly larger by volume. Both Eris and Pluto have a surface area that is comparable to the area of Russia or South America.
Low-resolution image of Eris and Dysnomia as imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope, August 2006
Relative distances and sizes of the classical planets, Pluto and Eris
Illustration of the stellar occultation by Eris in November 2010. The resulting occultation chords project a circular silhouette for Eris, giving a spherical diameter of 2,326 km (1,445 mi)
Artist's conception of Eris and its dark moon Dysnomia