A ring system detected around the Centaur (10199) Chariklo
Abstract
Until now, rings have been detected in the Solar System exclusively around the four giant planets. Here we report the discovery of the first minor-body ring system around the Centaur object (10199) Chariklo, a body with equivalent radius 1249 km. A multi-chord stellar occultation revealed the presence of two dense rings around Chariklo, with widths of about 7 km and 3 km, optical depths 0.4 and 0.06, and orbital radii 391 and 405 km, respectively. The present orientation of the ring is consistent with an edge-on geometry in 2008, thus providing a simple explanation for the dimming of Chariklo's system between 1997 and 2008, and for the gradual disappearance of ice and other absorption features in its spectrum over the same period. This implies that the rings are partially composed of water ice. These rings may be the remnants of a debris disk, which were possibly confined by embedded kilometre-sized satellites.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1409.7259,
title = {A ring system detected around the Centaur (10199) Chariklo},
author = {F. Braga-Ribas and B. Sicardy and J. L. Ortiz and C. Snodgrass and F. Roques and R. Vieira-Martins and J. I. B. Camargo and M. Assafin and R. Duffard and E. Jehin and J. Pollock and R. Leiva and M. Emilio and D. I. Machado and C. Colazo and E. Lellouch and J. Skottfelt and M. Gillon and N. Ligier and L. Maquet and G. Benedetti-Rossi and A. Ramos Gomes and P. Kervella and H. Monteiro and R. Sfair and M. El Moutamid and G. Tancredi and J. Spagnotto and A. Maury and N. Morales and R. Gil-Hutton and S. Roland and A. Ceretta and S. -h. Gu and X. -b. Wang and K. Harpsøe and M. Rabus and J. Manfroid and C. Opitom and L. Vanzi and L. Mehret and L. Lorenzini and E. M. Schneiter and R. Melia and J. Lecacheux and F. Colas and F. Vachier and T. Widemann and L. Almenares and R. G. Sandness and F. Char and V. Perez and P. Lemos and N. Martinez and U. G. Jørgensen and M. Dominik and F. Roig and D. E. Reichart and A. P. LaCluyze and J. B. Haislip and K. M. Ivarsen and J. P. Moore and N. R. Frank and D. G. Lambas},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1409.7259},
year = {2014}
}