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DWARF PLANET HAS A MYSTERIOUS RING
The feature is so far from the world’s surface that its material should have coalesced into a moon… but somehow, it didn’t
Reported by Tereza Pultarova
A mini-planet orbiting in the frigid outer reaches of the Solar System has a Saturnlike ring of dust and debris that defies the rules of physics. The planet in question is called Quaoar, and it’s the seventh largest of the known dwarf planets. Discovered in 2002 and measuring about 1,121 kilometres (697 miles) wide, Quaoar is one of the so-called trans-Neptunian objects, small planets orbiting beyond the Solar System’s outermost planet, Neptune. Residing in the Kuiper Belt, the doughnutshaped ring of rocky and icy debris in the outer Solar System, Quaoar is a proud owner of its own moon, the 160-kilometre (100-mile) wide Weywot. And a recent observation campaign revealed that it also has a ring of material in its orbit.