Provided by Will Dunham
Washington (Reuters) -Stors rings are one of the wonders of our solar system with a diameter of about 175,000 miles (280,000 kilometers) when they surrounded a giant planet. However, smaller celestial bodies in the solar system also boast of ring systems that are inherently impressive, even if their scale is not so magnificent.
Scientists said they were for the first time observing the ring system in the process of forming and evolution, consisting of four rings and diffuse materials surrounding a small icy body called Chiron, which is in the sun between Saturn and Uranus.
Chiron is a class of objects called Centaurs, which fills the external solar system between Jupiter and Neptune, shows the properties of both asteroids and comet. Formally called “(2060) Chiron,” its diameter is about 200 kilometers (125 miles) and takes about 50 years to complete one orbit around the sun. Centaurs are mainly made up of rock, water ice and complex organic compounds.
From the discovery in 1977 Astronomers noticed Chiron and turned on, and for many years they knew he was surrounded by a particular substance. In the new study, scientists received the best data on Chiron in 2023, using the Pico Dos Dias Observatory in Brazil to go with 2011, 2018 and 2022. Data.
Researchers said these observations clearly showed that it was surrounded by well -defined rings – three dense about 170 miles (273 km), 202 miles (325 km) and 272 miles (438 km) from the center of Chiron, and the fourth, about 870 miles (400 km) from its center. This external feature found for the first time is unusually far from Chiron and, according to them, requires further observations to confirm its stability as a ring. The three internal rings are inserted into the dust that turns into a disk -like shape.
Comparing the data of Chiron’s various observations, researchers found significant changes in the ring system, clear evidence that its rings develop real -time, says Chrystian Luciano Pereira, a researcher at the Brazilian National Observatory, and the author of the study of the Astrophysical Magazine’s letters.
“It gives a rare look at how such structures occur and change,” said Pereira.
Pereira added Chiron’s rings, most likely, mostly consist of water ice mixed with small amounts of stony materials, as well as Saturn. Water ice can play a key role in the stability of the ring systems, as its physical properties allow particles to remain separated, not connected to the moon.
Chiron demonstrates occasionally similar to a comet – throwing gas and dust into space. 1993 Chiron even demonstrated a small tail of the material, as the comet does it.
Investigators said his rings could be made of the rest of the material from a possible collision that destroyed the small moon of Chiron or from other space garbage accidents or may be out of the chiron itself – or perhaps some combination of these factors.
“It is a developing system that will help us understand dynamic mechanisms governing the creation of rings and satellites around small bodies, with a possible effect on various types of disk dynamics in the universe,” said astronomer and research co-author Brag Brazil in Brazilian.
All four of the large external planets of the solar system – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune – have rings, and Saturn is the largest. However, since 2014 Astronomers have learned that some of their smaller bodies also have them. Chiron brings this number to four by joining a colleague’s Centauer Charicle and two icy worlds behind Neptune – Haumaa and Quaoar.
“This diversity reminds us that the formation of rings is not an exclusive for large planets. It is a universal process that can take place wherever the right physical conditions exist,” said Pereira.
The team, including Brazilian, French and Spanish researchers, used a method called an asterisk to observe the rings. The researchers watched Chiron passed in front of a distant star, temporarily blocking its light. By measuring how the light of the star is from different parts of the earth, they were able to find out the environment around Chiron.
“We can accurately reconstruct the shape and the environment around the object,” said Pereira.
(Will Dunham’s message, edited by Rosalba O’Brien)