Rubin Observatory discovers dwarf planet candidate 2026 ED138 beyond Pluto
NSF-DOE facility finds one of the largest bodies yet detected in the outer solar system during early operations.
What to know
- Rubin Observatory discovered a new dwarf planet candidate, 2026 ED138, located beyond Pluto's orbit and estimated to be 600–1500 km across—one of the largest bodies found in that region.
- Astrophysicist Matthew Holman found the object on October 13 using search algorithms he developed to analyze billions of moving object detections in Rubin data.
- The discovery was announced at the Division for Planetary Sciences meeting and formally registered by the Minor Planet Center, validating an early success for the NSF-DOE observatory.
Matthew Holman Astrophysicist, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & SmithsonianMario Jurić Rubin Solar System Lead Scientist, University of WashingtonEdward Ajhar NSF Program Director for Rubin ObservatoryKathy Turner DOE Program Manager for Rubin Observatory
How it unfolded 1 development · click the chart to see its coverage articlesposts
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Rubin Observatory announces discovery on social media
Rubin Observatory posted to Bluesky describing the dwarf planet candidate as orbiting past Pluto and estimated to be approximately 600–1500 km across, making it one of the largest objects found beyond Neptune.
“Meet our Solar System's newest dwarf planet candidate: 2026 ED138! Orbiting past Pluto, scientists found it in NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory data from earlier this year.”
— Rubin Observatory -
23 outlets The Vera C. Rubin Observatory may have just discovered our solar system’s sixth dwarf planet
first by Scientific American, 12d ago · also Avi Loeb – Medium, Rubin Observatory, NOIRLab, The National Tribune, The Brighter Side of News, CNN +16
21 more headlines
- Discovery of a Dwarf Planet Candidate in the Outer Solar System by the NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory Avi Loeb – Medium · 11d ago
- NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory Reveals Its First Dwarf Planet Candidate in Our Solar System Rubin Observatory · 11d ago
- Rubin Observatory reveals its first dwarf planet candidate in our solar system Phys.org · 11d ago
- Rubin Observatory finds new dwarf planet candidate in our solar system The Brighter Side of News · 11d ago
- Scientists discover a never-before-seen potential dwarf planet in our solar system CNN · 11d ago
- Giant new dwarf planet discovered in our own solar system — hiding in plain sight NY Post · 11d ago
- Giant new dwarf planet discovered in our own solar system New York Post · 11d ago
- World spotted beyond Pluto could be solar system's next dwarf planet USA Today · 11d ago
- Massive new 'dwarf planet found' in solar system as surprising reason why it has only been found now revealed The Sun · 10d ago
- Astronomers Discover a Possible New Dwarf Planet in Our Solar System Wired · 10d ago
- Scientists may have found new dwarf planet Yahoo Tech · 10d ago
- Bright object beyond Pluto may be the solar system's sixth dwarf planet Live Science · 9d ago
- A New Dwarf Planet Hiding in Our Solar System? Connecticut Public · 9d ago
- Possible New Dwarf Planet in the Solar System Sky & Telescope · 9d ago
- New dwarf planet discovered by Rubin? EarthSky · 9d ago
- Scientists find possible dwarf planet hiding in outer solar system Yahoo · 8d ago
- Pluto May Have Company: Hidden Giant Beyond Neptune Could Become Solar System’s Sixth Dwarf Planet News18 · 8d ago
- We've discovered a new dwarf planet in our solar system Metro.co.uk · 6d ago
- Scientists discover massive dwarf planet lurking in the outer solar system FOX Weather · 6d ago
- New Icy World Discovered Beyond Pluto Could Become Solar System’s Sixth Dwarf Planet Ubergizmo · 6d ago
- Scientists May Have Found A New Dwarf Planet In Our Solar System SAYS · 5d ago
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first by NYT, 11d ago · also GeekWire, ScienceAlert, Yahoo News Singapore, BusinessLine, Yahoo, Chicago Tribune +10
14 more headlines
- A new pal for Pluto? Rubin Observatory finds its first dwarf planet candidate GeekWire · 11d ago
- Astronomers Discover a Giant New Dwarf Planet Candidate Hiding Beyond Pluto ScienceAlert · 11d ago
- Astronomers spot a new dwarf planet candidate beyond Pluto Yahoo News Singapore · 11d ago
- Scientists spot new dwarf planet candidate beyond Pluto BusinessLine · 10d ago
- Scientists spot icy object beyond Pluto that could be a new dwarf planet BusinessLine · 10d ago
- New dwarf planet discovered beyond Pluto's orbit Yahoo · 10d ago
- New dwarf planet (probably) spotted beyond Pluto Chicago Tribune · 10d ago
- Hiding in Plain Sight Beyond Pluto: Vera C. Rubin Observatory Discovers Dwarf Planet Candidate 2026 ED138 Gadget Review · 10d ago
- Beyond Pluto: Observatory reveals new dwarf planet candidate Mashable · 9d ago
- Rubin spots dwarf planet candidate beyond Pluto Stanford Report · 9d ago
- Dwarf Planet Beyond Neptune, New Candidate 2026 ED138 Discovered Vajiram & Ravi · 9d ago
- Scientists have found an enormous new dwarf planet beyond Pluto. And there could be many more BBC Sky at Night Magazine · 9d ago
- A giant new dwarf planet candidate may be hiding beyond pluto Nagaland Post · 8d ago
- Scientists discover potentially massive dwarf planet candidate hiding beyond Pluto LiveNOW from FOX · 5d ago
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Astronomers just found a possible new dwarf planet beyond Pluto
2 more of the top 3 · 29 posts in this stretch
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The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has discovered a new Dwarf Planet candidate in our solar system - 2026 ED138, a large, bright trans-Neptunian object orbiting beyond Pluto. Distance from Sun: ~46 au (1 au is the average distance between the Earth and the Sun. Pluto has an average distance of 40 au) Orbital tilt: 25° Diameter: 600 - 1500 km If…
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nobody is going to get in a colony ship and leave earth voluntarily, though. NASA's achievements in space have been incredible as I'm sure you're aware, but there's a world of difference between trained professionals and a massive civilian population that would be self-sustaining AND happy to be there. The sheer amount of advancements in…
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Minor Planet Center announces discovery; Holman presents at DPS meeting — The discovery was formally announced in a Minor Planet Electronic Circular. Matthew Holman and Mario Jurić presented the results at a press conference at the 58th Annual Division for Planetary Sciences meeting in Spokane, Washington.
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Matthew Holman discovers 2026 ED138 in Rubin Observatory data — On the evening of October 13, Holman ran data collected by Rubin earlier in 2026 through search algorithms he developed with CfA colleague Kevin Napier. The code identified the object and Holman immediately recognized its unusual brightness and distance suggested it was exceptionally large.
What people are saying 20 voices from 3 sites · best of 29 · verbatim
- Nov 2
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Yeah, as far as I can tell Salacia is essentially astronomers' dividing line between what is and isn't a dwarf planet, with the field split on whether it is one itself.
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What Vera Rubin observatory’s first new dwarf planet means Some are clamoring for Vera C. Rubin observatory's first dwarf planet, 2026 ED138, to become our Solar System's 6th dwarf planet. Nearly 100 other planetary bodies would like a word. https:// bigthink.com/starts-with-a-ban g/vera-rubin-observatory-first-dwarf-planet/
- Nov 1
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https://www. europesays.com/us/1159524/ Astronomers found a mysterious object beyond Neptune, and it could be a new dwarf planet # Science # UnitedStates # UnitedStates # US
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Their barycenter is outside their planetary mass and they're tidally locked to each other; I would definitely consider Pluto and Charon a binary system. Which I think is cooler than whether or not it's an official planet.
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Also exciting because this will probably be far from the first such discovery from this observatory.
- Oct 31
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Not really, it means that in the category of "dwarf planets" is very big. If it's like (0-100] is dwarf (100-1000] is regular a planet that's a 100 is a big dwarf - the biggest possible one in fact.
- Oct 30
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Here's another article I got interviewed for about the new dwarf planet, this one for Science News by Lisa Grossman, I'm really happy about this one, despite the fact that I'm the downer quote, I get to come back strong in the last paragraph: "Just finding a dwarf planet so quickly, maybe we’ll find something even bigger,” she says. “There could…
- Oct 29
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https://www. europesays.com/us/1152810/ Astronomers Discover a Possible New Dwarf Planet in Our Solar System # Asteroids # DwarfPlanets # Planets # Pluto # Science # Space # stars # UnitedStates # UnitedStates # US
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https://www. europesays.com/us/1151577/ Rubin Observatory Discovers Possible New Dwarf Planet # Astronomy # Pluto # Science # UnitedStates # UnitedStates # US # VeraCRubinObservatory
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🪐 ICYMI: Astronomers using # Chile 's Vera C. Rubin # Observatory spotted a bright object past # Pluto named 2026 ED138. Its movement follows a path typical of a # dwarfplanet , offering scientists fresh clues about # planet formation in our outer # SolarSystem . 👉 Learn more: https:// seethis.tv/post/2026-ed138-dwa rf-planet-candidate-video #…
- Oct 28
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#ICYMI: our Solar System has a newly-discovered dwarf planet candidate! Meet 2026 ED138, recently revealed by NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory ☄ Let's get to know this new world a little bit, shall we? 🔭🧪
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OK, this is big. The @rubinobservatory.org has detected its first candidate dwarf planet! It's currently named 2026 ED138. When confirmed with follow-up observations, the number of known dwarf planets will go from 5 to 6. Its orbit is shown with those of the other dwarf planets in this graphic.
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Astronomers found a mysterious object beyond Neptune, and it could be a new # DwarfPlanet | Space https://www. space.com/astronomy/dwarf-plan ets/astronomers-found-a-mysterious-object-beyond-neptune-and-it-could-be-a-new-dwarf-planet
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I really appreciate it, thanks! I have always hoped that we would be able to look around the zone of avoidance!
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yeah meant past, typo lol. fair points, agreed. Breakthroughs feels far away for the time being for FTL. How I wish I am wrong though
- Oct 27
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Ooh! A candidate dwarf planet, 2026 ED₁₃₈, was discovered by astronomers working on observations taken by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. More observations are needed to confirm that this object is massive enough to be round and therefore become an official dwarf planet. https:// youtu.be/8NIwXWwKOpw # astronnomy # DwarfPlanets # TNOs # SolarSystem
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a slight clarification: pluto is the largest dwarf planet by volume, Eris is the largest dwarf planet by mass (27% more massive than Pluto)
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Pluto has a diameter 50ish miles greater than Eris but Eris has 27% more mass than Pluto. Sadly Pluto just isn't that special.
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Vera C. Rubin observatory has discovered a probable dwarf planet.
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New dwarf planet just dropped. For now, it's called 2026 ED138. It appears to be ~1000 kilometers (600 miles) wide. If confirmed, that would make it a dwarf planet about half the size of Pluto. https:// rubinobservatory.org/news/rubi n-first-dwarf-planet-candidate # space # science # astronomy # nature