Overview
- Researchers led by Matthew Holman identified the moving object in Vera C. Rubin Observatory images using a specialized search algorithm and confirmed it with additional exposures and archival images.
- The team reconstructed a decade-long orbit that places the object about 46 astronomical units from the Sun on a path inclined roughly 25 degrees, a pattern typical of ‘hot‑classical’ trans‑Neptunian objects.
- Visible-light brightness implies a diameter between about 600 and 1,500 kilometers, but that range depends on the unknown surface reflectivity and leaves its roundness and dwarf‑planet status unresolved.
- Rubin recorded the object dozens of times in 2026 and earlier detections go back to 2016, and the discovery was reported to the Minor Planet Center and posted with the provisional designation 2026 ED138 in late October 2026.
- The find shows how Rubin’s wide, repeated survey of the southern sky can reveal large bodies hidden in dense star fields and signals a likely increase in new outer‑Solar‑System discoveries as follow‑up observations proceed.