The NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory has identified its first dwarf planet candidate within our solar system, Phys.org reports. The finding was announced by the observatory and confirmed in a separate release from the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Coverage of the discovery also came from WGBH, which credited Harvard astrophysicists with finding the potential dwarf planet, and from Scientific American, which reported that astronomers may have discovered the solar system's sixth dwarf planet. The candidate has not yet been confirmed as a dwarf planet.
The Rubin Observatory, jointly supported by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy, is named after astronomer Vera C. Rubin. This marks the facility's first dwarf planet candidate since it began operations, according to the reporting.
The designation remains provisional. Scientific American's framing of a possible sixth dwarf planet indicates the object would join the small group of bodies already classified in that category, but confirmation would depend on further verification.
What to watch next: whether follow-up observations confirm the object's status as a dwarf planet.
