Astonished Scientists Just Discovered Another New ‘Ring World’ In Our Solar System

After the news in January of the James Webb Space Telescope spying rings around Chariklo—a tiny world over two billion miles away from Earth—new research reveals another remote ringed world in the solar system.

Quaoar (pronounced “kwar-waar”) is a dwarf planet about 700 miles/1,110 kilometers in diameter—about half the size of Pluto—that orbits the Sun beyond Neptune in the remote and cold Kuiper belt region. It has a tiny moon called Weywot.

Discovered in 2002, it becomes the seventh place in the solar system where rings are found after Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and two minor planets—Chariklo and Haumea.

Unlike the rings around all those bodies, Quaoar’s are far from it, which is confusing to planetary scientists because it’s thought that rings only exist close-in where tidal forces prevent the material the makes rings from clumping to form moons.

In fact, Quaoar’s rings are twice as far as previously thought possible.

The discovery of rings around the tiny world was published today in Nature by an international team of astronomers using a high-speed camera on the Gran Telescopio Canarias on La Palma, one of the Canary Islands.

“It was unexpected to discover this new ring system in our solar system, and it was doubly unexpected to find the rings so far out from Quaoar, challenging our previous notions of how such rings form,” said Professor Vik Dhillon, co-author of the study from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Physics and Astronomy.

The use of the an extremely sensitive high-speed camera, called HiPERCAM, was critical. “The event lasted less than one minute and the rings are too small and faint to see in a direct image,” said Dhillon. “Everyone learns about Saturn’s magnificent rings when they’re a child, so hopefully this new finding will provide further insight into how they came to be.”

The discovery could force a rethink on theories of ring formation.

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.