ESOcast 64: First Ring System Around Asteroid

About This Video

This ESOcast presents the surprise discovery that the remote asteroid Chariklo is surrounded by two dense and narrow rings. The finding came from observations at multiple sites in South America, including ESO’s La Silla Observatory, and shows that Chariklo is the smallest object found to have rings. The origin of the rings is still unknown, but they may have formed from a collision that created a disc of debris.

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This ESOcast presents the surprise discovery that the remote asteroid Chariklo is surrounded by two dense and narrow rings. The finding came from observations at multiple sites in South America, including ESO’s La Silla Observatory, and shows that Chariklo is the smallest object found to have rings. The origin of the rings is still unknown, but they may have formed from a collision that created a disc of debris.

Summary

Observations from South America, including ESO’s La Silla Observatory, revealed that the asteroid Chariklo is surrounded by two narrow rings, making it the smallest known object with rings and only the fifth body in the Solar System known to have this feature.