First Ringed Asteroid Identified
An asteroid orbiting the Sun between Saturn and Uranus has become the first asteroid identified as having rings. Until now, this feature had only been observed around the four gas giants, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune. The 154-mile (248-km) asteroid, Chariklo, appears to have two distinct rings—one 4.3 miles (7 km) wide and the other 1.9 miles (3 km) wide—separated by a gap of about 5.6 miles (9 km). Given the rings’ crisp edges, astronomers suspect that Chariklo also has at least one moon, though none have yet been discovered. More… Discuss
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