Astronomers have discovered a ring around a small planet beyond Neptune that defies everything we know about ringed planets.
Beyond changing our initial observations of Quaoar, this discovery changes how we think about where rings can form around planets. As it stands now, scientists long believed that material orbiting a planet beyond a certain point would form a moon.
Then, if that moon moved too close to the planet, a line known as the “Roche limit,” it would be ripped apart by the planet’s tidal forces. However, based on these findings, the overall notion that rings only survive inside the Roche limit will need to be revised completely, astronomers explained. Further, we’ll need to learn more about what exactly is keeping the ring around this planet from forming into a moon. That could also help us determine more about future planets we observe and explore using observatories like theThe ESA plans to continue monitoring Quaoar, to see if it can learn more about the newly discovered ring surrounding the planet, as well as what is causing it to defy everything we thought we knew about the Roche limit.
Much like many of our discoveries surrounding the mysteries of the early universe, this one fundamentally changes how we view the universe.
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