However catching an occultation could be difficult. To see one, astronomers should be “on the proper place on the proper time,” says Morgado. That is particularly troublesome for a space telescope as a result of it’s arduous to foretell precisely the place the orbiting observatory shall be when an occultation happens.
“What’s distinctive with that is the truth that, for the primary time, they’ve used a satellite in space to carry out a stellar occultation,” says O’Rourke. It’s solely doable to “know the ring exists due to the standard of Cheops, as a result of [the telescope] is exterior the ambiance. So, there aren’t any particular results from the ambiance which could have an effect on the sign.”
Knowledge from the Cheops space telescope additionally has a really excessive signal-to-noise ratio, which made it doable for the astronomers to be assured they had been actually seeing an out-of-place ring round Quaoar. The workforce additionally analyzed occultation information collected by astronomers all over the world, together with observations made by citizen scientists.
Pushing the Restrict
The brand new research is a part of an even bigger challenge known as Lucky Star, which makes use of occultations to check dwarf planets within the outer solar system like Quaoar.
These distant objects protect primordial materials from the system’s earliest days. Their orbits additionally present clues about how the worlds’ orbits developed over time, providing scientists a glimpse into the distant previous. And, as Quaoar’s rings present, dwarf planets can even educate researchers quite a bit about how ring techniques and moons kind.
At this level, solely two different small our bodies within the solar system, Haumea and Chariklo, are identified to host rings. Nevertheless, Morgado expects that to vary sooner or later.
“We imagine that many extra rings are [out] there,” says Morgado. “We have to maintain observing, and likewise to look far, distant from the our bodies simply to see if there’s something there. As a result of the Roche limit will not be the restrict anymore.”
