The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, the most powerful wide-field survey telescope ever built, announced the discovery of a large near-Earth asteroid just seven nights into its first science operations — a dramatic demonstration of the instrument's ability to find objects that decades of previous surveys missed.
The object, provisionally designated 2026 BA, is estimated to be between 800 meters and 1.2 kilometers in diameter based on its brightness. That makes it one of the larger near-Earth asteroids discovered in recent years. The Rubin telescope's 8.4-meter primary mirror and 3.2-billion-pixel camera allow it to capture the entire visible sky every three nights, detecting moving objects by comparing images taken minutes apart.
A Planetary Defense Wake-Up Call
The quick discovery raised immediate questions among planetary defense researchers about how many similar-sized objects remain uncatalogued. An asteroid of this size would cause devastating regional damage if it struck Earth — far exceeding the power of any nuclear weapon — though NASA's planetary defense office confirmed that 2026 BA poses no threat to Earth across all projected orbital paths for the next 100 years.
"This is exactly what we built Rubin to do," said Dr. Lynne Jones of the Rubin Science Consortium. "There are still objects in our solar system we have not found yet, and we are just getting started."