Beyond Pluto: New Celestial Body Awaits Inclusion Among Dwarf Planets

Amidst millions of stars filling the sky near the Milky Way, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory captured the motion of a distant object orbiting the Sun beyond Pluto, which may be one of the largest candidates for classification as a dwarf planet.

The U.S. National Science Foundation announced that initial analysis of the observatory’s data revealed the object, designated with the temporary name ED138, but determining its nature and classifying it will require further observations.

Researchers suggest that the dense stellar field in the region contributed to the object remaining undetected until now. Repeated imaging of the sky, combined with algorithms designed to analyze the data, enabled the detection of its motion against the dense stellar background.

The Rubin Observatory relies on the largest camera ever built to monitor changes in the southern sky. Subsequent observations by other observatories will be the next step in gathering more precise information about the object and determining whether it will be added to the list of dwarf planets, which includes Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Haumea, and Makemake.