A New Ring System Found in Our Solar System

A group of researchers has discovered a previously unknown ring system around a dwarf planet located at the outer edge of the solar system. This ring system is unique in that it orbits much farther out than other known ring systems, which challenges current theories about the formation of ring systems.

The ring system around Quaoar

A group of international astronomers has discovered a new ring system orbiting Quaoar, a dwarf planet beyond Neptune that is approximately half the size of Pluto. The discovery was made using a sensitive high-speed camera called HiPERCAM, developed by researchers at the University of Sheffield, and placed on the world’s largest optical telescope, the Gran Telescopio Canarias on La Palma. The rings are too faint and small to be seen in an image, but were discovered during an occultation event, where the light from a background star was blocked by Quaoar, indicating the presence of a ring system.

Ring systems are relatively rare in the solar system

With only the giant planets, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune, as well as two minor planets, Chariklo and Haumea, known to have them. Previously known ring systems were thought to survive because they orbited close to their parent body, which prevented the ring material from accreting and forming moons. The ring system around Quaoar, however, is located at a distance of over 7 planetary radii, twice as far out as what was previously thought to be the maximum radius for ring systems to survive. This discovery challenges previous ideas about ring formation and has caused scientists to reconsider their understanding of this process.

Co-author of the study and University of Sheffield’s Division of Physics and Astronomy professor, Vik Dhillon, stated that the discovery of the ring system around Quaoar was unexpected, and it was even more surprising to find the rings so far from the dwarf planet, challenging previous ideas about how rings form.

He highlighted the importance of the high-speed camera, HiPERCAM, in the discovery, as the rings are too faint to see in a direct image and the event lasted less than a minute. Dhillon also expressed hope that the discovery would provide further insights into the formation of Saturn’s rings, which are well-known but not fully understood.

The research was carried out by a team of 59 scientists from around the world, led by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

Read the original article on PHYS.

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