An enormous icy object temporarily designated 2026 ED138 has been identified in the distant reaches of the solar system, potentially adding to the roster of officially recognized dwarf planets. The discovery, made by analyzing data from the Simonyi Survey Telescope at the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, was initially identified by Matthew Holman, a senior astrophysicist at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. If confirmed, the object would join five dwarf planets already recognized by the International Astronomical Union: Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Haumea, and Makemake.
The breakthrough came on October 13 when Holman used specialized software to search for previously undetected objects moving through the solar system. The program analyzes billions of telescope detections to identify points of light appearing in multiple observations with consistent movement patterns. Upon identifying ED138, Holman recognized that its brightness and distance suggested an unusually large body. To verify the discovery, Mario Jurić, a University of Washington astronomy professor leading Rubin’s solar system team, located 20 additional observations of ED138 in the telescope’s archives, including images from as early as March 2026. Researchers also identified historical observations from other surveys dating back to 2016, allowing them to reconstruct over a decade of the object’s orbital motion.
ED138 currently orbits approximately 46 astronomical units from the Sun, positioning it beyond Neptune in the region known as the trans-Neptunian zone. Current estimates place the object between 600 and 1,500 kilometers across, making it one of the largest dwarf planet candidates discovered beyond Neptune. For the object to qualify as an official dwarf planet, its gravity must be sufficient to shape it into a nearly round body, a requirement that objects within this size range typically satisfy. However, scientists emphasize that additional observations are needed to confirm its exact dimensions and dwarf planet status.
The object’s location near the plane of the Milky Way had previously obscured its discovery, as millions of background stars created an exceptionally crowded field that made detecting its faint movement challenging for earlier telescopes. Rubin Observatory’s advanced capabilities for repeatedly imaging the Southern Hemisphere sky, combined with sophisticated computer algorithms, enabled the detection by identifying subtle positional changes across billions of individual light detections. The discovery represents one of several significant finds made by Rubin Observatory since it began operations. Earlier observations identified more than 11,000 previously unknown asteroids and approximately 380 new trans-Neptunian objects, with researchers describing these results as preliminary findings of a much larger population yet to be uncovered through the observatory’s comprehensive Legacy Survey of Space and Time program.
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source
Article summary produced by Claude AI