A University of Central Florida researcher has helped identify a ring around a trans-Neptunian object 4 billion miles away that defies the current understanding of the physics behind ring formation.<\/p>\n
The trans-Neptunian object, Quaoar, is a large enough candidate to be a dwarf planet. Researchers have found that its ring exceeds the Roche limit, or the minimum distance at which the gravitational forces of one celestial body cause a second celestial body to disintegrate.<\/p>\n
Until now, all known rings have been found within this limit, as ring material cannot form a satellite or orbiting body at this range.<\/p>\n
The findings were published today in Nature<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n This discovery suggests that the limit does not always determine where ring material can survive, and it challenges the classical notion of the Roche limit.<\/p>\n Estela Fern\u00e1ndez-Valenzuela, an assistant scientist at UCF\u2019s Florida Space Institute<\/a> and study co-author, says that aside from a couple of thin rings confined by satellites in Saturn and Jupiter, no other object in the solar system has been observed to have a ring outside the Roche limit.<\/p>\n \u201cThis poses a mystery that we do not understand yet, and that defies our understanding of the physics of the formation and evolution of these rings,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez-Valenzuela says.<\/p>\n