Discovery of Quaoar
Descubrimiento de Quaoar
- Date
- 2002 · confidence high
- Place
- Palomar Observatory, California, United States
- Credited to
- Chad Trujillo, Michael E. Brown
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Trujillo and Brown found this sizeable trans-Neptunian object in the Kuiper belt, one of the first signs that the region held bodies comparable to the solar system's medium-sized moons.
What it led to
- First evidence of a mid-sized trans-Neptunian object
- Impetus for systematic surveys of the Kuiper belt
- Later discovery of a ring system around Quaoar (2023)