Vera Rubin Observatory discovers its first dwarf planet candidate in pre-survey data
The object, designated 2026 ED138, was detected by software sifting through billions of detections and traced back across a decade of images
The Vera Rubin Observatory has identified its first dwarf planet candidate, a distant icy world provisionally named 2026 ED138, spotted in data gathered before the telescope began its main survey and announced this week after a decade of observations were pieced together.