Astronomers discovered New Ring System in the Kuiper Belt

Astronomers discovered New Ring System in the Kuiper Belt Close Now

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Astronomers discovered New Ring System in the Kuiper Belt

Quaoar is the seventh largest planet known as a dwarf planet, founded in 2002 in the Kuiper belt. Scientists discovered that Quaoar has the largest solar ring system that all others previously found in our solar system.

Scientists discovered this solar ring system by observing that the light behind Quaoar’s planet changed when the planetoid star passed in front of it. Studies show that dwarf planets completely cycle around the sun in 288 years.

Solar ring systems can be formed in two ways once they develop around planets by the latter’s gravitational force that broke apart nearby smaller bodies. Another way is they are created by dust particles resulting from striking between the planet’s moon and micrometeoroids like Jupiter’s solar ring system.

When the Quaoar was passing in front of the star, the starlight decreased three times, once during the actual occultation event (defined as when the observer can’t see an object due to the passing of another object between them, blocking its view) and also before and after this event.

This observation confirmed that the Quaoar planet has a mass on either side, which may be a ring system. This ring system is interesting as it covers the circle of a distance greater than seven times the radius of the dwarf planet, which is around 690 miles (1,100 kilometers) wide.

 

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