Artist's impression of ring system around asteroid Chariklo
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.
This artist's impression shows how the ring system may look from close-up.
Mynd/Myndskeið:ESO/L. Calçada/M. Kornmesser
Um myndskeiðið
Auðkenni: | eso1410c |
Útgáfudagur: | Mar 26, 2014, 19:00 CET |
Tengdar fréttatilkynningar: | eso1410 |
Tímalengd: | 29 s |
Frame rate: | 30 fps |
Um fyrirbærið
Nafn: | Chariklo |
Tegund: | Solar System : Interplanetary Body : Asteroid |
Flokkur: | Solar System |