Chariklo found to have two rings
26 March 2014
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.
... http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1410/
Click to play embedded YouTube video.
ESOcast 64: First Ring System Around Asteroid
Eso Observatory
Uploaded on 26 Mar 2014
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.
"In those rare moments of total quiet with a dark sky, I again feel the awe that struck me as a child. The feeling is utterly overwhelming as my mind races out across the stars. I feel peaceful and serene."
Looks like a deep fried potato with onion rings on the side.
Seriously, this makes me wonder about the age of this mini ring system. Granted, its not orbiting in a crowded part of our solar system, but wouldn’t gravitational perturbations from other objects tend to destabilize this mini “ring-world” over time? The escape velocity at the rings distance from this light massed body must be very small. This suggests to me that these rings can’t be extremely old. The brightness of the rings compared to the asteroid also suggests relative youthfulness.
