Astronomers Discover a Possible New Dwarf Planet in Our Solar System
The difference between a planet and a dwarf planet is largely their environment. While both orbit the sun and have sufficient gravity to assume a nearly spherical shape, a planet has cleared its orbit of other bodies of comparable size. Dwarf planets, on the other hand, coexist with other objects in the region of the solar system they traverse. This is the main reason why Pluto ceased to be considered a planet in 2006 and was reclassified as a dwarf planet.
Matthew Holman, a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and a member of the observatory’s operations team, identified the object on October 13 while analyzing data collected by Rubin in 2026. A more thorough search allowed the team to locate additional observations in archived recordsdating back to 2016. Thanks to this set of images, the team was able to reconstruct more than a decade of the object’s...
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