Rubin Observatory spots a possible dwarf planet beyond Pluto

The object, provisionally named ED138, may be one of the largest dwarf planet candidates ever found, a preliminary analysis shows. It orbits in the outer solar system beyond Pluto.

Known dwarf planets, if ED138 is confirmed

• Pluto
• Ceres
• Eris
• Haumea
• Makemake

If confirmed, ED138 would join the five known dwarf planets: Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Haumea and Makemake.

It sits near the plane of the Milky Way, a region filled with millions of stars, which likely explains why it went unseen. Rubin's regular monitoring spotted it moving.

New asteroids Rubin reported in April

11,000 asteroids

Other observatories can now follow up on ED138. In April, Rubin submitted observations of over 11,000 new asteroids.