Second ring found around dwarf planet Quaoar

A large international team of astronomers has discovered that the dwarf planet Quaoar is circled by a second ring. In their study, accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, the group discovered the ...

A second minor planet may possess Saturn-like rings

There are only five bodies in our solar system that are known to bear rings. The most obvious is the planet Saturn; to a lesser extent, rings of gas and dust also encircle Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune. The fifth member of ...

The Lords of the Rings among centaurs

(Phys.org)—Chariklo, the largest known centaur object, orbiting in a region between Saturn and Uranus, is a very intriguing celestial body that surprised astronomers last year. This remote minor planet has unveiled the ...

Thanks, Gaia: Astronomers spy Europa blocking distant star

On 31 March 2017, Jupiter's moon Europa passed in front of a background star—a rare event that was captured for the first time by ground-based telescopes thanks to data provided by ESA's Gaia spacecraft.

Webb spies Chariklo ring system with high-precision technique

In 2013, Felipe Braga-Ribas and collaborators, using ground-based telescopes, discovered that Chariklo hosts a system of two thin rings. Such rings had been expected only around large planets such as Jupiter and Neptune.

SOFIA successfully observes challenging Pluto occultation

(PhysOrg.com) -- On June 23, NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) observed the dwarf planet Pluto as it passed in front of a distant star. This event, known as an "occultation," allowed scientific ...

Asteroids help scientists measure distant stars

Look up at the sky on a clear night, and you'll see lots of stars. Sometimes they seem almost within reach or at least a short rocket ride. But the closest star to Earth—not counting our sun—is more than four light years ...

See the moon photobomb saturn in an amazing capture

Welcome to Saturn as you've probably never seen it. It's always awe-inspiring to see the clockwork motion of the heavens transpire in real time. In a slow motion universe, occultations give us the chance to see the cosmos ...

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