Scientists may have found new dwarf planet

Key Points:

• Scientists from the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory have identified a potential new dwarf planet, designated 2026 ED138, located beyond Pluto's orbit in the solar system.
• The object, discovered by Matthew Holman using early data from the observatory's 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), is estimated to be between 600 and 1,500 kilometers in diameter, possibly large enough to be spherical and classified as a dwarf planet.
• 2026 ED138 is situated about 46 times farther from the sun than Earth, in a crowded star field near the Milky Way plane, which may explain why it remained undetected until now.
• The Rubin Observatory has already discovered over 11,000 new asteroids and hundreds of objects beyond Neptune during its testing phase, signaling the potential for many more significant discoveries during its decade-long survey.
• The ongoing LSST aims to create a comprehensive time-lapse map of the southern sky, vastly improving our inventory of solar system objects and advancing understanding of cosmic phenomena such as dark matter and dark energy.