JAKARTA (ANTARA) – A small, distant world called Quaoar, gave astronomers a few surprises as it orbited beyond Pluto in the frigid outer reaches of the solar system.
Reported by Reuters on Thursday, researchers said they had detected a ring encircling the Quaoar similar to those around the planet Saturn. But those around the Quaoar defy understanding of where such rings could form, as these are located farther away than current scientific understanding allows.
The ring’s distance from the Quaoar places it in a location where scientists believe particles should have quickly gathered around a celestial body to form the moon rather than remaining as separate components in a disk of ring material.
“This is the discovery of a ring located in a place that shouldn’t be possible,” said astronomer Bruno Morgado of the Valongo Observatory and Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature.
Discovered in 2002, Quaoar is defined as a minor planet and proposed to be a dwarf planet, although that status has not been officially granted by the International Astronomical Union, the scientific body that does such things.
Its diameter is about 700 miles (1,110 km), roughly one third that of the moon and half that of the minor planet Pluto. Quaoar has a small moon called Weywot, 105 miles (170 km) in diameter that orbits outside the ring.
The name Quaoar is taken from the creator god in Native American mythology, while Weywot is the name of his son.
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