A ring system detected around the Centaur (10199) Chariklo
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Date
03/04/2014Author
Grant ID
UF100010 / UF130581
ST/J001651/1
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Hitherto, rings have been found exclusively around the four giant planets in the Solar System1. Rings are natural laboratories in which to study dynamical processes analogous to those that take place during the formation of planetary systems and galaxies. Their presence also tells us about the origin and evolution of the body they encircle. Here we report observations of a multichord stellar occultation that revealed the presence of a ring system around (10199) Chariklo, which is a Centaur—that is, one of a class of small objects orbiting primarily between Jupiter and Neptune—with an equivalent radius of 124± 9 kilometres (ref. 2). There are two dense rings, with respective widths of about 7 and 3 kilometres, optical depths of 0.4 and 0.06, and orbital radii of 391 and 405 kilometres. The present orientation of the ring is consistent with an edge-on geometry in 2008, which provides a simple explanation for the dimming3 of the Chariklo system between 1997 and 2008, and for the gradual disappearance of ice and other absorption features in its spectrum over the same period4,5. This implies that the rings are partly composed of water ice. They may be the remnants of a debris disk, possibly confined by embedded, kilometre-sized satellites.
Citation
Braga-Ribas , F , Sicardy , B , Ortiz , J L , Snodgrass , C , Roques , F , Vieira-Martins , R , Camargo , J I B , Assafin , M , Duffard , R , Jehin , E , Pollock , J , Leiva , R , Emilio , M , Machado , D I , Colazo , C , Lellouch , E , Skottfelt , J , Gillon , M , Ligier , N , Maquet , L , Benedetti-Rossi , G , Ramos Gomes , A , Kervella , P , Monteiro , H , Sfair , R , Moutamid , M E , Tancredi , G , Spagnotto , J , Maury , A , Morales , N , Gil-Hutton , R , Roland , S , Ceretta , A , Gu , S , Wang , X , Harpsoe , K , Rabus , M , Manfroid , J , Opitom , C , Vanzi , L , Mehret , L , Lorenzini , L , Schneiter , E M , Melia , R , Lecacheux , J , Colas , F , Vachier , F , Widemann , T , Almenares , L , Sandness , R G , Char , F , Perez , V , Lemos , P , Martinez , N , Jorgensen , U G , Dominik , M , Roig , F , Reichart , D E , LaCluyze , A P , Haislip , J B , Ivarsen , K M , Moore , J P , Frank , N R & Lambas , D G 2014 , ' A ring system detected around the Centaur (10199) Chariklo ' , Nature , vol. 508 , no. 7494 , pp. 72–75 . https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13155
Publication
Nature
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1476-4687Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright 2015 the Authors. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature13155
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