Astronomers discover dwarf planet candidate 2026 ED138 in Kuiper Belt
Astronomers just found a new dwarf planet candidate called 2026 ED138, hanging out in the Kuiper Belt past Pluto.
Discovered with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory earlier this year, ED138 is somewhere between 600 and 1,500km wide and orbits the Sun at a slightly farther out than Pluto does.
Its orbit is tilted, which made it tricky to spot against all the stars in the Milky Way.
ED138 orbit 281 years size uncertain
2026 ED138 takes about 281 years to circle the Sun and was tracked using both fresh telescope data and old images from as far back as 2016.
Scientists are still figuring out its exact size since they do not know how reflective it is yet; infrared studies are on the way to help confirm if it is truly a dwarf planet.
The Rubin Observatory's ongoing survey could uncover even more mysterious worlds like this, helping us learn more about our Solar System's farthest reaches.