A ring system detected around the minor planet (10199) Chariklo

BRAGA-RIBAS, F; SICARDY, B; ORTIZ, J. L.; ROEQUES, F.; VIEIRA-MARTINS, R.; CAMARGO, M; ASSAIN, R; 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 JR. A.; KEVELLA, P; MONTEIR, H.; SFAIR, R.; EL MOUTAMID, M.; TANCREDI, G.; SPAGNOTTO, J.; MURAY, A.; MORALES, N; GIL-HUTTON, R.; ROLAND, S. ; CERETTA, A.; GU, S-H; WANG, X-B; HARPSOE, K; RABUS, M.; MANFROID, J.; OPITOM, C.; VANZI, L.; MEHRET, L.; MEHRET, L.; LORENZINI, L.; SCHNEITER, E. M.; MELIA, R.; LECACHEUX, J.; COLAS, F.; VCHIER, 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.

NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2014

itherto, 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 th