Mystery as Pluto-sized planet is found to have an 'unusual' ring of debris ... trends now
Astronomers have spotted a Saturn-like ring of debris around a Pluto-sized dwarf planet that they did not think was possible.
The researchers said their discovery defies the current understanding of where such rings can form — because it is much further away from the small distant world than current scientific understanding would allow.
Surrounding the dwarf planet Quaoar, which sits beyond Neptune, the 'unusual' ring calls into question how such systems form.
'We have observed a ring that shouldn't be there,' said Bruno Morgado at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
The distance of the ring from Quaoar places it in a location where scientists believe particles should readily come together around a celestial body to form a moon, rather than remain as separate components in a disk of ring material.
'Unusual': Astronomers have spotted a Saturn-like ring of debris around a Pluto-sized dwarf planet that they did not think was possible. Pictured is an artist's impression of Quaoar's ring
The discovery was made by an international team of astronomers using HiPERCAM – an extremely sensitive high-speed camera developed by scientists at the University of Sheffield.
It is mounted on the world's largest optical telescope, the 10.4 metre diameter Gran Telescopio Canarias on La Palma.
Because the rings are too faint to see directly in an image, the discovery was made by observing an occultation – when the light from a background star was blocked by Quaoar
