Posted on 04/09/2014 2:34:44 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: Asteroids can have rings. In a surprising discovery announced two weeks ago, the distant asteroid 10199 Chariklo was found to have at least two orbiting rings. Chariklo's diameter of about 250 kilometers makes it the largest of the measured centaur asteroids, but now the smallest known object to have rings. The centaur-class minor planet orbits the Sun between Saturn and Uranus. The above video gives an artist's illustration of how the rings were discovered. As Chariklo passed in 2013 in front of a faint star, unexpected but symmetric dips in the brightness of the star revealed the rings. Planetary astronomers are now running computer simulations designed to investigate how Chariklo's unexpected ring system might have formed, how it survives, and given the asteroid's low mass and close passes of other small asteroids and the planet Uranus, how long it may last.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Video Illustration Credit: Lucie Maquet, Observatoire de Paris, LESIA]
Asteroid Found with Rings! First-of-Its-Kind Discovery Stuns Astronomers
Space.com | March 26, 2014 | Nola Taylor Redd
Posted on 3/26/2014 3:05:41 PM by 12th_Monkey
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3137613/posts
Is it as big as the ring aroiund Uranus?
Cool! A jumbo egg with rings is just what the Solar System needs right now.
We should send Congress and The Great I Won to investigate. It’ll only take them 20 years or so.
In space you have to be careful about jokes like that, or Saturnalia.
But, In Space, nobody can hear you laugh!
:-)
I didn’t know Shatner crossdressed, or that he was that tall.
The Arab League wants the planet Jupiter’s named changed to Arabpiter, or something else without “Jew” in it.
How’d Juno ‘bout that?
LOL.
Is there a “story” behind that pic? Or is it just a pic taken between film scenes?
or maybe a photoshop
I zeus make a guess.
Sometimes, my mercurial personality gets the better of me.
By Jove, you may be right there!
(Animated GIF from the video clip ;)
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