From northern Chile, the telescope has scanned the southern sky every few nights since June 2025 and is expected to detect more than 40,000 new trans-Neptunian objects.
Caltech astronomers proposed in 2016 that a planet about 10 times Earth's mass, far beyond Neptune, explains the odd orbits of six distant icy bodies.
Researchers say Rubin could confirm or effectively rule out Planet Nine within a year or two, while also checking a 2024 candidate and reshaping knowledge of the Kuiper Belt.
With new discoveries challenging the theory, is the evidence for a hidden ninth planet actually starting to disappear?
How is the VRO's massive new asteroid data already revolutionizing Earth's planetary defense systems?
Vera Rubin Observatory Discovers Over 11,000 New Asteroids and Accelerates the Search for Planet Nine
Overview
Since beginning full operations in early 2026, the Vera Rubin Observatory has launched the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, rapidly discovering over 11,000 new asteroids, including hundreds of distant trans-Neptunian objects with unusual orbits. These findings, enabled by advanced algorithms and a fast, wide-field scanning strategy, provide crucial data to test the Planet Nine hypothesis proposed in 2016. Astronomers expect definitive evidence for or against this hidden planet within the first two years of the survey. Beyond this search, the decade-long survey will map millions of small bodies, reveal faint galaxies around the Milky Way, and capture dynamic cosmic events, all processed through powerful AI-driven systems, promising a transformative impact on astronomy.