A ring system detected around the Centaur (10199) Chariklo

TL;DR

This paper reports the first discovery of a ring system around a minor Solar System body, Chariklo, revealing dense rings with specific properties and implications for its spectral features and debris origin.

Contribution

It presents the first detection of rings around a minor body, expanding the understanding of ring systems beyond giant planets.

Findings

Discovered two dense rings around Chariklo with specific widths and optical depths.

Ring orientation explains Chariklo's dimming and spectral changes over time.

Rings likely remnants of a debris disk possibly confined by small satellites.

Abstract

Until now, rings have been detected in the Solar System exclusively around the four giant planets. Here we report the discovery of the first minor-body ring system around the Centaur object (10199) Chariklo, a body with equivalent radius 124$\pm$9 km. A multi-chord stellar occultation revealed the presence of two dense rings around Chariklo, with widths of about 7 km and 3 km, optical depths 0.4 and 0.06, and orbital radii 391 and 405 km, respectively. The present orientation of the ring is consistent with an edge-on geometry in 2008, thus providing a simple explanation for the dimming of Chariklo's system between 1997 and 2008, and for the gradual disappearance of ice and other absorption features in its spectrum over the same period. This implies that the rings are partially composed of water ice. These rings may be the remnants of a debris disk, which were possibly confined by embedded kilometre-sized satellites.