Pluto may no longer be a planet, and it may not even be that big, but it’s big enough to possibly, maybe, be hiding a dwarf planet that’s been behind it this whole time.
According to The New York Times, researchers using the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile just spotted a massive icy world roughly 4.3 billion miles from the Sun. Provisionally named 2026 ED138, this possible dwarf planet could become the first official addition to our solar system’s roster of dwarf planets since the International Astronomical Union created the category in 2006.
The object is about 46 times farther from the Sun than Earth is, cruising along in a heavily tilted 25-degree orbit relative to the rest of the planets. Astrophysicist Matthew Holman and his team ran special tracking software that noticed the tiny bright dot moving across telescope photos taken over several months.
Scientists Discovered a Potential New Dwarf Planet Billions of Miles From the Sun
Based on its brightness, ED138 is estimated to be anywhere between 370 and 930 miles wide. For perspective, at the highest end, 930 miles is roughly the distance between New York City and the Illinois-Wisconsin border. If it ends up being on the bigger end of the scale, it could rival previously known dwarf planets like Haumea and Makemake.
To earn its dwarf-planet title alongside Pluto and Ceres, astronomers will need to confirm that its mass generates enough gravity to squeeze it into a round sphere instead of a run-of-the-mill, lumpy, potato-shaped rock. Scientists will use the James Webb Space Telescope and ALMA to examine its size and to see if it has any moons of its own.
So far, it doesn’t seem like the long-theorized ninth planet lingering in our solar system, but it is a shining example of how we’ve learned so much about space yet still make fairly large discoveries about objects in our own solar system.
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