Michael E. Brown

Mike Brown
Born	(1965-06-05) June 5, 1965 (age 51) Huntsville, Alabama
Nationality	American
Fields	Planetary astronomy
Education	Princeton University, UC Berkeley
Doctoral students	Jean-Luc Margot, Chad Trujillo, Marc Kuchner
Known for	Discovery of Eris and other trans-Neptunian objects How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming
Spouse	Diane Binney
Children	1
Website www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/

Trans-Neptunian objects discovered: 36
(126154) 2001 YH140	December 18, 2001
(126155) 2001 YJ140	December 20, 2001
(55565) 2002 AW197	January 10, 2002
(307251) 2002 KW14	May 17, 2002
(119951) 2002 KX14	May 17, 2002
(250112) 2002 KY14	May 19, 2002
Quaoar	June 4, 2002
(307261) 2002 MS4	June 18, 2002
2002 QX47	August 26, 2002
(84719) 2002 VR128	November 3, 2002
(208996) 2003 AZ84	January 13, 2003
Ceto	March 22, 2003
(120178) 2003 OP32	July 26, 2003
Sedna	November 14, 2003
Orcus	February 17, 2004
(175113) 2004 PF115	August 7, 2004
Salacia	September 22, 2004
2004 SC60	September 22, 2004
(120348) 2004 TY364	October 3, 2004
Haumea	December 28, 2004
Eris	January 8, 2005
2005 EW318	March 8, 2005
2005 EX318	March 8, 2005
Makemake	March 31, 2005
2005 GX206	April 11, 2005
2005 GY206	April 11, 2005
2005 GZ206	April 13, 2005
(136199) Eris I Dysnomia	September 10, 2005
(187661) 2007 JG43	May 10, 2007
(225088) 2007 OR10	July 17, 2007
2007 RT215	September 11, 2007
(315530) 2008 AP129	January 11, 2008
2008 ST291	September 24, 2008
2008 SO266	September 24, 2008
2008 SP266	September 26, 2008
Other objects discovered
(87) Sylvia I Romulus	February 18, 2001
(22) Kalliope I Linus	August 29, 2001
1 with Chad Trujillo 2 with David L. Rabinowitz 3 with Henry G. Roe 4 with Kristina M. Barkume 5 with Glenn Smith 6 sole credit went to José Luis Ortiz Moreno et al. 7 with M. A. van Dam, A. H. Bouchez, D. Le Mignant 8 with Jean-Luc Margot

Michael E. Brown (born June 5, 1965) is an American astronomer, who has been professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) since 2003. His team has discovered many trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), notably the dwarf planet Eris, the only known TNO more massive than Pluto. He has referred to himself as the man who "killed Pluto", because he furthered Pluto being downgraded to a dwarf planet in the aftermath of the discovery of Eris and several other probable trans-Neptunian dwarf planets. He is the author of How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming, published in 2010.

Brown is a Huntsville, Alabama native and graduated from Virgil I. Grissom High School in 1983. He earned his A.B. in physics from Princeton University in 1987, where he was a member of the Princeton Tower Club. He did his graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley where he earned an M.A. degree in astronomy in 1990 and a Ph.D. degree in astronomy in 1994.

Brown is well known in the scientific community for his surveys for distant objects orbiting the Sun. His team has discovered many trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). Particularly notable are Eris, a dwarf planet and the only TNO known to be more massive than Pluto, leading directly to Pluto's demotion from planet status;Sedna, a planetoid thought to be the first observed body of the inner Öpik–Oort cloud; and Orcus.

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