2026 ED138: A Large Trans-Neptunian Object in Early Rubin Observatory Data, and How Many More May Remain
Authors: Matthew J. Holman, Mario Jurić, Kevin J. Napier, Jacob A. Kurlander, Aren Heinze, Joachim Moeyens, Megan E. Schwamb, Pedro H. Bernardinelli, Ian Sullivan, Eric C. Bellm, Silvia Protopapa, Colin Orion Chandler, Ian Chow, Eric J. Christensen, Samuel Cornwall, Siegfried Eggl, Sarah Greenstreet, Chester Li, Erfan Nourbakhsh, James E. Robinson, Devanshi Singh, Danica Zilkova
Abstract
We characterize a large trans-Neptunian object (TNO), 2026 ED138, discovered in data taken by the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory with the linking code pointdexter, and validate it independently. 2026 ED138 has absolute magnitude $H_V=3.19$, implying a diameter of 612-1530 km for geometric albedos between 0.25 and 0.04 and making it one of the ten intrinsically brightest known TNOs and a dwarf-planet candidate. At $i\approx19.4$ it is bright enough in the sky for ground-based spectroscopy and light curves and for detailed study with HST and JWST. Archival DECam detections extend its arc to more than ten years (3789 days). Its orbit, with barycentric $a=43.09$ au, $e=0.139$ and $i=24.4^\circ$, lies at the edge of the 12:7 mean-motion resonance with Neptune, like that of the dwarf planet Haumea, but with $g-r=0.63$ it is too red to be a member of Haumea's collisional family. 2026 ED138 was missed by earlier surveys because it lies far south and near the crowded regions of the Galactic plane. Our recoveries of the known TNOs with $H_V<4$ suggest that about 3 more objects like them, and probably more, remain undiscovered away from the Galactic plane. More such objects probably lie within $10^\circ$ of the plane, which no search has yet covered to this depth.
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Seven Years of TESS Precovery Observations of the Dwarf-planet Candidate 2026 ED$_{138}$T. Han, J. Audenaert, D. Muthukrishna et al. · 2026 · Not summarized yet
Seven Years of TESS Precovery Observations confirms 2026 ED138’s orbit by recovering the same trans-Neptunian object in archival TESS images.
Abstract
The trans-Neptunian object 2026 ED$_{138}$ was announced in 2026 October as the first dwarf-planet candidate in our solar system discovered by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) observed it in five month-long sectors between 2019 and 2026, four of them before its discovery. We subtract every Gaia DR3 star from these crowded full-frame images with the TESS-Gaia Light Curve (TGLC) package, then remove static residuals with a running median. Stacking the images along its predicted path detects 2026 ED$_{138}$ in all five sectors at 5-21$\sigma$, and at 34$\sigma$ combined. The TESS positions alone confirm the JPL orbit, and its brightness is consiste…
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The Luminosity Function of Ultrafaint Trans-Neptunian Objects Detected by JWSTMarielle R. Eduardo, A. Morgan, W. Fraser et al. · 2026 · Astronomical Journal · cited 1 time · Not summarized yet
The JWST survey measures the faint end of the trans-Neptunian object size distribution, unlike this paper’s study of a bright, large object.
Abstract
We present a definitive discovery of 27 trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) using the Near-Infrared Camera aboard the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). By employing a shift-and-stack technique and a machine learning network geared specifically to identifying false-positive detections in JWST images produced through the shift-and-stack process, we achieved a 40% detection threshold of mF150W2 = 28.8 mag (corresponding to mr ∼ 29.8 mag) across a sky area of 0.05 deg2. This marks the deepest solar system survey to date, reaching magnitudes that allow us to explore never-before-seen regions of the TNO size distribution. Our faintest detection has mF150W2 = 29.3 mag and a diameter of ∼10 km (assuming…
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The NEID Earth Twin Survey. VI. Discovery of a Low-Mass Planet Orbiting HD 126053 and RV Signals Near the Rotation Periods of HD 168009 and HD 10780Arvind F. Gupta, Sarah E. Logsdon, J. Luhn et al. · 2026 · Not summarized yet
The NEID survey detects and characterizes planets around stars using radial velocities, a different planetary system from the trans-Neptunian objects studied here.
Abstract
Extreme precision radial velocity (EPRV) spectrographs are making strides in extending the limits of radial velocity exoplanet detection. Perhaps the best evidence for this is how readily EPRV instruments are facilitating the discovery and detailed characterization of small-amplitude planetary signals around stars that have already been intensively monitored for decades with less stable instruments. In this paper, we use data from the ongoing NEID Earth Twin Survey (NETS) to detect and confirm the planet HD 126053 b (P=10.91 d), which is among the least massive planets (m sin i = 3.60 m M_\oplus) around solar-type stars within 25 pc. We then jointly characterize the known planet HD 168009 b …
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NGTS-5b: a highly inflated planet offering insights into the sub-Jovian desertJames McCormac, Maximiliano Moyano, Don Pollacco et al. · 2019 · A&A 625, A142 (2019) · cited 14 times · AI summary available
NGTS-5b examines a short-period planet population and the sub-Jovian desert, rather than distant small bodies in the Solar System.
Abstract
Context: Planetary population analysis gives us insight into formation and evolution processes. For short-period planets, the subJovian desert has been discussed in recent years with regard to the planet population in the mass/period and radius/period parameter space without taking stellar parameters into account. The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) is optimised for detecting planets in this regime, which allows for further analysis of the sub-Jovian desert. Aims: With high-precision photometric surveys (e.g. with NGTS and TESS), which aim to detect short period planets especially around M/K-type host stars, stellar parameters need to be accounted for when empirical data are compared t…
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A 36.34-day Sub-Neptune Candidate Transiting the Nearby K Dwarf TIC 402710280Rishit Vora · 2026 · Not summarized yet
The study reports a candidate transiting sub-Neptune around a nearby star, unlike this paper’s characterization of a trans-Neptunian object.
Abstract
Transiting sub-Neptunes on orbits longer than a month are rare around bright stars. We report a candidate with a 36.34-day period around TIC 402710280, a $V = 10.0$ K dwarf at 66.8 pc that the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has observed only in full-frame images. Four transits from 2021 to 2026, reduced by three independent pipelines, have consistent depths (mean $2092 \pm 47$ ppm) and a duration of $5.27 \pm 0.05$ h. Two are 36.36 days apart. The light curves exclude every shorter period consistent with both down to one day, and the duration disfavors still shorter ones, leaving $P = 36.33986 \pm 0.00051$ d. The candidate's radius is $3.75 \pm 0.22\,R_\oplus$ and its equilibri…
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Investigating the young Solar System analog HD95086G. Chauvin, R. Gratton, M. Bonnefoy et al. · 2018 · Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · cited 34 times · AI summary available
The HD95086 study characterizes a young star’s planets and debris disk, rather than objects orbiting in the distant Solar System.
Abstract
HD95086 (A8V, 17Myr) hosts a rare planetary system for which a multi-belt debris disk and a giant planet of 4-5MJup have been directly imaged. Our study aims to characterize the physical and orbital properties of HD95086b, search for additional planets at short and wide orbits and image the cold outer debris belt in scattered light. We used HARPS at the ESO 3.6m telescope to monitor the radial velocity of HD95086 over 2 years and investigate the existence of giant planets at less than 3au orbital distance. With the IRDIS dual-band imager and the IFS integral field spectrograph of SPHERE at VLT, we imaged the faint circumstellar environment beyond 10au at six epochs between 2015 and 2017. We …
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Three long period transiting giant planets from TESSRafael Brahm, Solène Ulmer-Moll, Melissa J. Hobson et al. · 2023 · Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · cited 11 times · AI summary available
The study discovers and characterizes warm giant exoplanets using TESS and follow-up observations, not trans-Neptunian objects.
Abstract
We report the discovery and orbital characterization of three new transiting warm giant planets. These systems were initially identified as presenting single transit events in the light curves generated from the full frame images of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Follow-up radial velocity measurements and additional light curves were used to determine the orbital periods and confirm the planetary nature of the candidates. The planets orbit slightly metal-rich late F- and early G-type stars. We find that TOI 4406b has a mass of $M_P$= 0.30 $\pm$ 0.04 $M_J$ , a radius of $R_P$= 1.00 $\pm$ 0.02 $R_J$ , and a low eccentricity orbit (e=0.15 $\pm$ 0.05) with a period of P= 30.08…
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Uncovering the true periods of the young sub-Neptunes orbiting TOI-2076Hugh P. Osborn, Andrea Bonfanti, Davide Gandolfi et al. · 2022 · Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · cited 30 times · AI summary available
The study resolves orbital-period aliases for transiting planets around TOI-2076, addressing a different orbit-characterization problem.
Abstract
Context: TOI-2076 is a transiting three-planet system of sub-Neptunes orbiting a bright (G = 8.9 mag), young ($340\pm80$ Myr) K-type star. Although a validated planetary system, the orbits of the two outer planets were unconstrained as only two non-consecutive transits were seen in TESS photometry. This left 11 and 7 possible period aliases for each. Aims: To reveal the true orbits of these two long-period planets, precise photometry targeted on the highest-probability period aliases is required. Long-term monitoring of transits in multi-planet systems can also help constrain planetary masses through TTV measurements. Methods: We used the MonoTools package to determine which aliases to follo…
Prior work it builds on
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The LSST Science Pipelines Software: Optical Survey Pipeline Reduction and Analysis EnvironmentRubin Observatory Science Pipelines Developers, Y. AlSayyad, Robert Armstrong et al. · 2026 · cited 13 times · Not summarized yet
The LSST Science Pipelines paper describes the Rubin Observatory software that produces survey data used to discover 2026 ED138.
Abstract
The NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory is executing the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) as its prime mission, producing a series of data releases over the ten-year survey. The LSST Science Pipelines Software will be used to create these data releases and to perform the nightly prompt processing and alert production. This paper provides an overview of the LSST Science Pipelines Software, describing the components and their integration into pipelines that generate science-ready data products. We do not provide detailed descriptions of individual algorithms, but instead aim to show how the pipeline software is constructed and the breadth of the system. Similarly, we do not provide details…
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