• Listen to this segment with Chad Trujillo

• Listen to the entire program with Host Sonali Kolhatkar

Growing up most of us were taught that there were 9 planets in our solar system, orbiting the sun. Then, some years ago, the 9th and furthest planet Pluto, was downgraded and suddenly there were 8, maybe.

Then, about ten years ago, a new planet-like object also orbiting the sun was discovered in what is called the Oort Cloud. Astronomers named it Sedna, after an Inuit Goddess.

Recently, the most newly discovered member of our Solar System was announced, nicknamed ‘Biden.’ Eighty times the distance that the earth is from the sun, ‘Biden’ or 2012 VP113 is an object likely covered with ice, found to be orbiting the sun. Such discoveries have changed our understanding of our own planetary backyard.

NOTE: Some of you may know that Uprising host, Sonali Kolhatkar was an astronomer before turning to public radio. In the late 1990s, she attended the Graduate program at the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii where she met Chad Trujillo, one of the astronomers credited with discovering both Sedna and Biden.

GUEST: Chad Trujillo is an astronomer at Gemini Observatory in Hilo, Hawaii. Together with Scott Sheppard, he discovered the object known as 2012 VP113