Rings in the Solar System are not exactly rare.
Now astronomers have found an entirely new ring system. Only this one has left them scratching their heads, as it's unlike anything else in the Solar System., a small dwarf planet that hangs out in the Kuiper Belt beyond Pluto, is also circled by a dense ring – a ring circling at a distance so great it should still be stuck together as a moon.
Quaoar, measuring just 1,110 kilometers across, was discovered in 2002 and, over the years, has turned out to be quite the interesting little ball of rock. It shows signs ofBut in 2021, astronomers noticed something else. They were watching as Quaoar, a dark shadow in the far reaches of the Solar System, moved into position to obscure a star way off in the far distance, a type of observation called an occultation.
Once a sizeable object crosses the Roche limit, you can reasonably expect it to be reduced to rubble that is soon teased into a ring. Outside the Roche limit, what you should find are intact moons. "What is so intriguing about this discovery around Quaoar is that the ring of material is much farther out than the Roche limit,""As a result of our observations, the classical notion that dense rings survive only inside the Roche limit of a planetary body must be thoroughly revised."
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