Observations at many sites in South America, including ESO’s La Silla Observatory, have made the surprise discovery that the remote asteroid Chariklo is surrounded by two dense and narrow rings. This is the smallest object by far found to have rings and only the fifth body in the Solar System — after the much larger planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — to have this feature. The origin of these rings remains a mystery, but they may be the result of a collision that created a disc of debris. The new results are published online in the journal Nature on 26 March 2014.
The release, images and videos are available on:
http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1410/
Translations are available on other countries page: Österreich, België—Belgique—Belgien, Brasil, Chile, Česko, Danmark, Suomi, France, Deutschland, Ísland, Italia, Nederland, Norge, Polska, Portugal, Россия, España, Sverige, Suisse—Schweiz—Svizzera, Türkiye, Україна, Србија
Space Scoop - the children's version of this release is available at: http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1410/kids/
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The ESO Education and Public Outreach Department
26 March 2014
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26 March 2014: This episode of the ESOcast presents the recent discovery that the remote asteroid Chariklo is surrounded by two dense and narrow rings.
Telescopes at seven locations in South America, including ...
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14 March 2014: A survey of the number of peer-reviewed scientific papers published in 2013 using data from ESO’s telescopes and instruments has shown that ESO remains the world’s most productive ...
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12 March 2014: The ESO Director General, Tim de Zeeuw, together with ESO Council President Xavier Barcons, ESO Representative in Chile Fernando Comerón, and Director of Operations Andreas Kaufer met Michelle Bachelet ...
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