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In the 1800s, astronomers proposed a planet called Vulcan orbiting the Sun inside Mercury's orbit, partly inspired by the successful prediction of Neptune based on anomalies in Uranus's orbit. Vulcan was reportedly sighted multiple times over roughly forty years and its properties were described in detail, even though it is now understood not to exist. What observers actually saw remains unexplained.
Astronomers using the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile have identified a distant icy object, provisionally named 2026 ED138, orbiting about 46 astronomical units from the Sun. Based on its brightness and estimated reflectivity, researchers believe it measures between 600 and 1,500 km across, potentially making it the largest trans-Neptunian object found in two decades. The object was detected by Harvard astrophysicist Matthew Holman using a search code, then confirmed across 30 images spanning 20 nights, with older data tracing its path back to 2016.
Researchers at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, led by Matthew Holman, have identified a trans-Neptunian object called ED138 that may qualify as a dwarf planet. The object was first flagged by object-tracking software Holman wrote with Kevin Napier, then confirmed in archival data stretching back to 2016 using the Dark Energy Camera and the Asteroid Institute's precovery service. Preliminary estimates put ED138's diameter between 600 and 1,500 kilometers, within the range needed for gravity to pull it into a round shape.
Harvard-Smithsonian researcher Matthew Holman spotted a trans-Neptunian object, designated ED138, on October 13 while reviewing 2026 data from the Rubin Observatory. Follow-up analysis of archival images traced the object's path back more than a decade to 2016, though its exact size and shape remain unconfirmed.
Astronomers at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile announced detection of an object, provisionally named 2026 ED138, orbiting about 4.3 billion miles from the Sun, roughly 46 times Earth's distance. Early estimates put its diameter between 370 and 930 miles, and its orbit is tilted 25 degrees from the plane most planets follow. If confirmed, it would be the first new dwarf planet classified since the International Astronomical Union set the category's rules in 2006.
Astronomers using the Vera C. Rubin Observatory have identified a trans-Neptunian object called 2026 ED138, located about 46 times farther from the Sun than Earth and estimated at 600 to 1,500 kilometers wide. Researchers Matthew Holman and Kevin Napier found it using a new search code, then traced additional sightings back to 2016 to map its orbit, which is tilted roughly 25 degrees from the solar system's plane.
NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft, which reached Mars in October 2001, and its younger counterpart the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have both far outlasted their original mission timelines of just a few years. The two orbiters continue to gather data on Martian ice and surface changes while also relaying communications from every NASA rover on the surface back to Earth.
BBC's upcoming nature series Blue Planet III will retain imperfect shots—including visible plankton, boats, buoys, and less-than-ideal water conditions—rather than editing them out as previous seasons did. Executive Producer Elizabeth White told The Guardian the production team chose to keep this footage to present a more authentic, unpolished view of ocean life.
Security researchers at Calif (working with OpenAI's Patch the Planet program) and Wiz (owned by Google Cloud) independently found two critical remote code execution vulnerabilities in PHP, tracked as CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619. Both teams used frontier AI models, including GPT-5.6 Sol and Gemini 4 Argon, to identify the flaws and build working exploits. One of the bugs had actually been flagged in a 2024 PHP Foundation audit funded by the Sovereign Tech Agency, but was left unpatched because no one could devise a practical exploit at the time.
OpenAI says researchers using its GPT-5.6 Sol model under the 'Patch the Planet' program discovered critical vulnerabilities in PHP, the language that powers roughly 70% of websites. The PHP Foundation has issued patched versions 8.2.35, 8.3.36, 8.4.27 and 8.5.12, though older PHP 8.1 and earlier releases won't be fixed. The coordinated disclosure was moved up a day to Oct. 21 after some details leaked publicly on Oct. 20.
The NSA issued an alert on two severe vulnerabilities in PHP, the server-side language that underpins roughly 70% of websites, including those running WordPress. The flaws, present since PHP version 5 in 2004, let attackers access a server's file system or database, and the PHP Foundation has already released patches, recommending an update to PHP 8.5.12. The bugs were uncovered through AI-driven security research: one by Calif using OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol under its 'Patch the Planet' program, and others by Google-owned Wiz using its Atlas agent alongside Gemini 4 Argon and GPT-5.6 Sol.
Trail of Bits has released two agent-based plugins, patching-bugs and regression-hunt, built through its Patch the Planet collaboration with OpenAI. The patching-bugs plugin reproduces reported bugs and develops and tests fixes, while regression-hunt checks whether changes break previously working, supported behavior. The company says a review of over 130 merged Patch the Planet PRs found 21 regressions, none of which broke a security protection.