The Vera C. Rubin Observatory may have just discovered our solar system’s sixth dwarf planet

Scientific American · Adam Kovac · 2026-10-27 21:00 UTC

Located farther away from Earth than Pluto, the object was hidden in the light of the Milky Way’s stars

Congratulations to Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Haumea and Makemake—there may be a new sibling to welcome into the dwarf planet family.

On Tuesday astronomers at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory announced the discovery of a new dwarf planet candidate in a distant part of the solar system beyond Neptune’s orbit. The new object doesn’t have an official name yet and is instead going by its provisional designation—2026 ED138.

The discovery was made by running billions of pieces of data collected by the Rubin Observatory through a search code developed by Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian astronomers Matthew Holman and Kevin Napier.

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