![]() ![]() The presence of a ring system answers questions about why the asteroid has brightened since observations in 2008. The asteroid's small size means it has very little gravity, allowing fast-moving objects to easily escape from its orbit the asteroid would only have been able to hold on to slower-traveling objects. The collision that likely created Chariklo's rings would have had to have been a slow-moving impact. Crashes between the nearby rocky bodies may wind up hurling any potential ring material away too quickly. The rocky inner planets and the asteroid belt lie closer to the sun, and experience stronger forces from the solar wind, which can more efficiently blow small particles away from objects they might otherwise orbit, Braga-Ribas said.Ĭollisions in the fast-moving asteroid belt are also violent processes due to their faster orbital speeds. This placement may help to explain the presence of Chariklo's rings and their absence in the asteroid belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter. Rocky Chariklo appears to be more asteroid than comet in composition, according to the paper. The centaurs share characteristics with both asteroids and comets, and are thought to come from the Kuiper Belt region beyond Pluto. Kornmesser/Nick Risinger)Ĭhariklo is the largest of the centaurs, several bodies in the outer solar system whose orbits cross - and are changed by - the outer planets. The asteroid is the first non-planetary body in the solar system discovered to have its own ring system. This artist’s impression shows the view from inside the ring system around the asteroid Chariklo (at center) with potential shepherding satellites also visible. The research and Burns' accompanying article were published online today (March 26) in the journal Nature. "Rings may be a much more common property than we thought," he said. He authored a perspective article that appeared alongside the new findings.Ĭhariklo may not be the only nonplanetary body to have rings, Braga-Ribas said. Burns was not a member of Braga-Ribas' team, but he studies planetary rings and the small bodies of the solar system. ![]() "Chariklo seems to be nothing special, otherwise," Joseph Burns, of Cornell University, told by email. What's so special about this asteroid to make it have rings? The other telescopes had exposure times greater than 0.7 seconds, so they were only able to observe a single gap in the light. "As the stellar occultation by both rings lasted for 0.6 seconds in total, it was able to 'see' the rings in detail." "This was possible due to the use of the 'Lucky Imager,' a fast and sensible camera that obtained a sequence of images like a video at a rate of 10 images per second," Braga-Ribas said. Of them, only the European Southern Observatory's La Silla telescope in Chile was able to capture the small gap between the rings. Īstronomers utilized seven telescopes, most of which were located in South America. These gas giants significantly dwarf the smaller asteroid. While Saturn is the most well-known ringed body in the solar system, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus also have their own, fainter rings. Particles orbiting Chariklo also travel more slowly - only tens of meters per second, compared with tens of kilometers per second in the rings of Saturn. "The whole Chariklo system would fit about 12 times in the Cassini Division," Braga-Ribas said, referring to the largest gap in Saturn's rings. ![]() The rings are similar to those around Saturn, in that both are very dense, bright and possibly formed by rock and water ice. He went on to say that the larger, inner ring would block the view of the outer ring from the ground. "They would be noticeably close, as they are at about 1/1,000 of the moon's distance from us," he added. The system consists of a dense, 4-mile-wide (7 km) ring near the planet, and a smaller 2-mile-wide (3 km) ring farther out.įrom the surface of the asteroid, "they would be two spectacular sharp and really bright rings, crossing all the sky," Braga-Ribas said. By comparing the data gathered from seven different telescopes, the team was able to identify the shape, size and orientation of the rings. The astronomers were surprised to discover that a few seconds before and after the main occultation, the light dimmed slightly, indicating that something circled the rocky asteroid. As the asteroid traveled, it blocked light from the star, enabling scientists to learn more about it. On June 3, 2013, Braga-Ribas led a team of astronomers in observing Chariklo as it passed in front of a distant star - a process known as an occultation.
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