Vera Rubin Observatory Discovers Two New Milky Way Satellites in Early Data Preview

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has announced the discovery of two new satellites of the Milky Way galaxy: an ultra-faint dwarf galaxy named Aquarius IV and a globular cluster named Rubin-GC1. These findings, part of the observatory's Early Data Preview 2 (EDP2) released in July 2026, represent the first such discoveries by the powerful new observatory. The detection of Rubin-GC1 is particularly notable as it was found in the direction of the Milky Way's dense bulge. The discoveries are detailed in two new papers, including one titled 'Discovery of the Distant, Ultra-faint Milky Way Satellite Aquarius IV with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Early Data Preview 2,' published in Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society.