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An Anonymous Coward writes:

It's not just Saturn and gas giants such as Uranus which have rings in our solar system – as a tiny dwarf planet has just been spotted with its very own.

It's the first dwarf planet beyond Neptune to be spotted with its own ring – and could prove that such rings are not uncommon in the outer solar system.

takyon: Haumea has two known moons as well as this newly discovered ring:

A stellar occultation observed on 21 January 2017 indicated the possibility of a ring system around Haumea. As published in Nature on 11 October 2017, this occultation was confirmed to be a ring, representing the first such ring discovered for a TNO. The ring has a radius of about 2,287 km, a width of ~70 km and an opacity of 0.5. The ring plane coincides with Haumea's equator and the orbit of its larger, outer moon Hi'iaka. The ring is close to the 3:1 resonance with Haumea's rotation.

Haumea is known for its extremely elongated shape, a consequence of its rapid rotation.

The size, shape, density and ring of the dwarf planet Haumea from a stellar occultation (DOI: 10.1038/nature24051) (DX)

Original Submission   Alternate Submission

1. "as a tiny dwarf planet has just been spotted with its very own." - http://metro.co.uk/2017/10/11/scientists-squint-past-uranus-and-see-another-tiny-ring-6993332/
2. "Haumea" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haumea
3. "The size, shape, density and ring of the dwarf planet Haumea from a stellar occultation" - https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v550/n7675/full/nature24051.html
4. "DX" - https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature24051
5. "Original Submission" - https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=22718
6. "Alternate Submission" - https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=22734

printed from SoylentNews, Ring Confirmed Around Dwarf Planet Haumea on 2024-05-12 20:01:09