First Ring System Around Asteroid

[Waspie_Dwarf]

First Ring System Around Asteroid

Chariklo found to have two rings

Observations at many sites in South America, including ESO’s La Silla Observatory, have made the surprise discovery that the remote asteroid Chariklo is surrounded by two dense and narrow rings. This is the smallest object by far found to have rings and only the fifth body in the Solar System — after the much larger planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — to have this feature. The origin of these rings remains a mystery, but they may be the result of a collision that created a disc of debris. The new results are published online in the journal Nature on 26 March 2014.

The rings of Saturn are one of the most spectacular sights in the sky, and less prominent rings have also been found around the other giant planets. Despite many careful searches, no rings had been found around smaller objects orbiting the Sun in the Solar System. Now observations of the distant minor planet (10199) Chariklo as it passed in front of a star have shown that this object too is surrounded by two fine rings.

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[Waspie_Dwarf]

First Ring System Around Asteroid

This ESOcast shows how observations at many sites in South America, including ESO's La Silla Observatory, have made the surprise discovery that the remote asteroid Chariklo is surrounded by two dense and narrow rings. This is the smallest object by far found to have rings and only the fifth body in the Solar System — after the much larger planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — to have this feature. The origin of these rings remains a mystery, but they may be the result of a collision that created a disc of debris.

Credit: ESO

Source: ESO Observatory

Edited March 27, 2014 by Waspie_Dwarf

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Artist's impression of ring system around asteroid Chariklo

Observations at many sites in South America, including ESO’s La Silla Observatory, have made the surprise discovery that the remote asteroid Chariklo is surrounded by two dense and narrow rings. This is the smallest object by far found to have rings and only the fifth body in the Solar System - after the much larger planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune - to have this feature. The origin of these rings remains a mystery, but they may be the result of a collision that created a disc of debris.

This artist's impression shows how the ring system may look from close-up.

Credit: ESO/L. Calçada/M. Kornmesser

Source: ESO Observatory

Edited March 27, 2014 by Waspie_Dwarf

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Artist's impression of ring system around asteroid Chariklo

Observations at many sites in South America, including ESO's La Silla Observatory, have made the surprise discovery that the remote asteroid Chariklo is surrounded by two dense and narrow rings. This is the smallest object by far found to have rings and only the fifth body in the Solar System - after the much larger planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — to have this feature. The origin of these rings remains a mystery, but they may be the result of a collision that created a disc of debris.

This artist's impression shows how the ring system may look from close-up.

Credit: ESO/L. Calçada/M. Kornmesser

Source: ESO Observatory

Edited March 27, 2014 by Waspie_Dwarf

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Artist's impression of ring system around asteroid Chariklo

Observations at many sites in South America, including ESO’s La Silla Observatory, have made the surprise discovery that the remote asteroid Chariklo is surrounded by two dense and narrow rings. This is the smallest object by far found to have rings and only the fifth body in the Solar System — after the much larger planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — to have this feature. The origin of these rings remains a mystery, but they may be the result of a collision that created a disc of debris.

This artist's impression shows how the ring system may look from close-up.

Credit: ESO/L. Calçada/M. Kornmesser

Source: ESO Observatory

Edited March 27, 2014 by Waspie_Dwarf

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Observations of the occultation of asteroid Chariklo

This video shows what happened when the asteroid Chariklo passed in front of a star. As well as the expected drop in brightness when the asteroid blocked the light of the star two smaller dips were seen, before and afterwards, caused by the presence of a double ring.

Credit: ESO/Felipe Braga Ribas/M. Kornmesser

Source: ESO Observatory

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Artist's impression of ring system around asteroid Chariklo

Observations at many sites in South America, including ESO’s La Silla Observatory, have made the surprise discovery that the remote asteroid Chariklo is surrounded by two dense and narrow rings. This is the smallest object by far found to have rings and only the fifth body in the Solar System — after the much larger planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune - to have this feature. The origin of these rings remains a mystery, but they may be the result of a collision that created a disc of debris.

This artist's impression shows how the ring system may look from close-up.

Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

Source: ESO Observatory

Edited March 27, 2014 by Waspie_Dwarf

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Animation of the outer Solar System and orbits of Centaurs

This animation shows the motions of bodies in the outer Solar System. Objects in long-term unstable orbits in this region are known as Centaurs and the largest Centaur is Chariklo, the first small body to be found to have a ring.

Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

Source: ESO Observatory

Edited March 27, 2014 by Waspie_Dwarf

[maximusnow]

I can hear it now, Girl, Just cause you got a ring dont mean nothin! Your man done come up to me just last week.

[Merc14]

So would the moon be orbiting between the rings having cleaned out that central corridor?

[ancient astronaut]

Science kicks ass!!!!!!!!

[taniwha]

So would the moon be orbiting between the rings having cleaned out that central corridor?

How come there is no evidence of the moon in the occultation data?

Observations of the occultation of asteroid Chariklo

This video shows what happened when the asteroid Chariklo passed in front of a star. As well as the expected drop in brightness when the asteroid blocked the light of the star two smaller dips were seen, before and afterwards, caused by the presence of a double ring.

Credit: ESO/Felipe Braga Ribas/M. Kornmesser

Source: ESO Observatory

[Waspie_Dwarf]

How come there is no evidence of the moon in the occultation data?

Because moons orbit around their primary, in other words they are constantly moving. The chances of a small moon being in exactly the correct point in it's orbit to occult the star are quite low.

[toast]

Astronomy is the best cinema you can get. Period.

[taniwha]

Because moons orbit around their primary, in other words they are constantly moving. The chances of a small moon being in exactly the correct point in it's orbit to occult the star are quite low.

Thats not conclusive evidence of rings. The asteroid may have two or more moons that happened to be in the correct spatial alignment at the right time. Just saying.

[Merc14]

Thats not conclusive evidence of rings. The asteroid may have two or more moons that happened to be in the correct spatial alignment at the right time. Just saying.

Anything is possible but that is highly improbable. There are two rings which means 4 occlusions so there would have to be 4 moons, all lined up perfectly, to get your results. What do you think is more likely? Plus, I am sure, when a team of professionals considers all the data from the various instruments involved, that they are pretty sure they are looking at rings, two of them, around the asteroid..

Edited March 28, 2014 by Merc14

[Sundew]

Impressive find! Perhaps in the future tech will have reached a stage where we can send thousands of tiny exploratory robotic ships with cameras to all these exotic worlds to gather data and take photos.

[taniwha]

Impressive find! Perhaps in the future tech will have reached a stage where we can send thousands of tiny exploratory robotic ships with cameras to all these exotic worlds to gather data and take photos.

That would be great. Or even if those robots could attach to one and navigate it back to Earth

for the purpose of 's t u d y' lol.

Edited April 7, 2014 by taniwha

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Thats not conclusive evidence of rings. The asteroid may have two or more moons that happened to be in the correct spatial alignment at the right time. Just saying.

You don't know what you are talking about. Just saying.

Anything is possible but that is highly improbable. There are two rings which means 4 occlusions so there would have to be 4 moons, all lined up perfectly, to get your results.

Not only that but you would have to have two pairs of moons sharing only two orbits. The pairs would have to be 180^o from each other. This is a highly unstable situation. The chances of finding one pair of moons in that position are vanishingly low. The chances of two pairs virtually non-existent.

This is conclusive evidence of rings (for everyone except taniwha apparently) and is how the rings of both Uranus and Neptune were discovered.

[coolguy]

Awesome find.i bet there are other asteroids with rings around them

[Merc14]

Awesome find.i bet there are other asteroids with rings around them

I'd bet you are right sir. Cheers to the folks that are finding them, the geniuses that created the tools to find them and the guys with 40 pound heads that think this stuff up and then go look for it. We are a helluva a species aren't we?

Edited April 12, 2014 by Merc14