- There were approximately 1.45 to 1.5 million known asteroids cataloged in our solar system before the Vera C. Rubin Observatory began its new surveys in 2025.
- Now astronomers at Rubin Observatory have found 11,000 new asteroids. It was the largest single batch of discoveries submitted to the Minor Planet Center in the past year.
- Rubin also found some 380 new objects beyond Neptune. And astronomers think it might help us discover a 9th major planet in our solar system, if one exists.
NOIRLab published this original story on April 2, 2026. Edits by EarthSky.
Rubin finds 11,000 new asteroids
Scientists using preliminary data from the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile have discovered more than 11,000 new asteroids. It was the largest single batch of discoveries submitted to the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center in the past year. And the Minor Planet Center has since confirmed the new discoveries, which came from data from Rubin’s early optimization surveys. In announcing the discoveries, Noirlab said:
[The discoveries] offer a powerful preview of the observatory’s transformative impact on solar system science.
The submission to Minor Planet Center comprises approximately 1 million observations – taken over the span of a month and a half – of over 11,000 new asteroids and more than 80,000 already known asteroids. This includes some that had previously been observed but were later ‘lost’ because their orbits were too uncertain to predict their future locations.
You can interact with all of Rubin’s asteroid discoveries in the Rubin Orbitviewer. This tool uses real data to provide an intuitive way to explore the structure of our cosmic backyard in 3D and in real time. Also, visit the Rubin Asteroid Discoveries Dashboard to learn about the new objects Rubin has uncovered.
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Tip of the iceberg
Mario Juric, at the University of Washington, is Rubin Solar System Lead Scientist. Juric said:
This first large submission after Rubin First Look is just the tip of the iceberg and shows that the observatory is ready. What used to take years or decades to discover, Rubin will unearth in months. We are beginning to deliver on Rubin’s promise to fundamentally reshape our inventory of the solar system and open the door to discoveries we haven’t yet imagined.
Among the newly identified objects are 33 previously unknown near-Earth objects (NEOs). NEOs are small asteroids and comets whose closest approach to the sun is less than 1.3 times the distance between Earth and the sun. None of the newly discovered NEOs pose a threat to Earth. The largest is about 500 meters (1,600 feet) wide. Scientists closely track objects larger than 140 meters (460 feet). That’s because they could cause significant regional damage if they impact. Yet scientists estimate we’ve only identified about 40% of these mid-sized NEOs so far.
Once operating fully in survey mode, Rubin should reveal an additional nearly 90,000 new NEOs. Some of those may be potentially hazardous. Also, Rubin should nearly double the number of known NEOs larger than 140 meters to around 70%. By enabling early detection and continuous monitoring of these objects, Rubin will be a powerful tool for planetary defense.
See the more than 11,000 asteroids
This animation shows the inner solar system populated with known asteroids in dark blue. Asteroids discovered by Rubin are in light blue. As the discovered objects appear, we see their locations at the time of each object’s discovery. Over the course of the 1.6 years that the animation spans, the newly discovered asteroids disperse.
Video via NOIRLab/ NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/SLAC/AURA/R. Proctor. Star map: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio. Gaia DR2: ESA/Gaia/DPAC. Image Processing: M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab).
Solar system bodies beyond Neptune
The dataset also contains roughly 380 trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). TNOs are icy bodies orbiting beyond Neptune. Two of the newly discovered TNOs – provisionally named 2025 LS2 and 2025 MX348 – have extremely large and elongated, or stretched out, orbits. At their most distant points, these two objects reach roughly 1,000 times farther away from the sun than the Earth is. That places them among the 30 most distant minor planets known.
The 380 candidates discovered by Rubin in less than two months add to the 5,000 discovered over the past three decades. As with less distant asteroids, finding the TNOs depended critically on developing new sophisticated algorithms.
Matthew Holman is a Senior Astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian and former Director of the Minor Planet Center. Holman, who spearheaded the work on the TNO discovery pipeline, said:
Searching for a TNO is like searching for a needle in a field of haystacks. Out of millions of flickering sources in the sky, teaching a computer to sift through billions of combinations and identify those that are likely to be distant worlds in our solar system required novel algorithmic approaches.
Kevin Napier is a research scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who, with Holman, developed the algorithms to detect distant solar system objects with Rubin data. Napier added:
Objects like these offer a tantalizing probe of the solar system’s outermost reaches, from telling us how the planets moved early on in the solar system’s history, to whether a hitherto undiscovered 9th large planet may still be out there.
How did Rubin make the discoveries?
Rubin Observatory made the discoveries thanks to a unique combination of a large mirror, the world’s most powerful astronomical digital camera, and highly sophisticated, software-driven pipelines designed to detect faint, fast-moving objects against a crowded sky. Rubin can survey the southern sky at roughly six times the sensitivity of most current asteroid searches. This allows it to detect smaller and more distant objects than ever before. These capabilities will allow Rubin to build the most detailed census of our solar system ever. And all of the discoveries will help scientists work out the story of the solar system’s history.
Ari Heinze of the University of Washington, together with Jacob Kurlander, a graduate student at the University of Washington, built the software that detected them. Heinze said:
We built it, and it works. Even with just early, engineering-quality data, Rubin discovered 11,000 asteroids and measured more precise orbits for tens of thousands more. It seems pretty clear this observatory will revolutionize our knowledge of the asteroid belt.
The Minor Planet Center’s verification of this large group of discoveries enables the entire global community to access the data, refine orbits and begin analysis immediately. And these 11,000-plus asteroids are just the start. Once the decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) begins later this year, scientists expect Rubin to discover this many asteroids every two to three nights during the early years of the survey. This will ultimately triple the number of known asteroids and increase the number of known TNOs by nearly an order of magnitude.
Bottom line: Rubin Observatory’s early data revealed more than 11,000 asteroids in the asteroid belt, along with some 380 objects beyond Neptune.
Via NOIRLab
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