James Webb Space Telescope discovers the rings of tiny solar system body Chariklo are changing

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have discovered that the ring system of a tiny solar system body is even more interesting than they knew.

The object in question is Chariklo, which orbits the sun between Saturn and Uranus, at around 17 times the distance between Earth and the sun.

Despite only being around 155 miles (250 kilometers) wide, Chariklo, part of the Centaur family of asteroids , possesses two thick rings.

Though Saturn is the solar system body most famous for its rings, other planets also have ring systems, albeit less prominent.

That includes Uranus, Neptune, and Jupiter.

However, Chariklo and the even smaller body Chiron , show that even the most diminutive bodies can develop rings.

Now, thanks to the incredible sensitivity of the JWST, scientists know that the rings of Chariklo are even stranger than their initial discovery in 2013 suggested.

The team, led by researchers from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC), began observing Chariklo with the JWST in Oct.

2022.

They used a technique called stellar occultation, which measures the decrease in light from a star when an object passes in front of it.

"By comparing JWST observations with those obtained during other stellar occultations over the last decade, we discovered opposite changes in the two rings: while the inner ring shows significantly higher opacity, the outer ring shows lower opacity," team leader Pablo Santos-Sanz of the IAA-CSIC said in a statement.

The changing rings of the asteroid suggest that it experiences more complex physics than previously thought.

This is important because scientists had previously believed that small bodies had relatively stable rings.

"Our results force us to rethink how they form, how they evolve, and what mechanisms maintain their stability," Santos-Sanz said.