International team astronomers discovered within it a new, hitherto unknown system of rings Our solar system around Quaoar, a distant Pluto-sized dwarf planet discovered in 2002 that orbits the Sun outside of Neptune.

The small and faint rings of Quaoar are unique in that they revolve around it at a much greater distance than the rings around Saturn, which has not yet been satisfactorily explained.

🆕Discovery in the outer solar system 💍

Observations @ESA_CHEOPS put the ring on the dwarf planet Quaoar

Find out how 👉 https://t.co/gYrtcpNc7n pic.twitter.com/LIyZ4syVSJ

— ESA Science (@esascience) February 8, 2023

59 researchers from 14 countries published in the journal Nature, led by the Brazilian Bruno Morgado of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, made their discovery using the world’s largest optical telescope with a diameter of 10.4 meters, the Large Canary Telescope in La -Palm.

Rings that contain chunks of ice and other material are rare in our solar system. Apart from Saturn (the most famous and impressive), Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, only two other minor planets, Charicles and Haumea, have rings. In all these cases, the rings are relatively close to the planets, while in Quaoar they are 4,100 kilometers away from the center of the planet, seven times the radius of the latter and more than twice what is expected. On Saturn, for example. its rings are separated from each other by about three planetary radii.

^{Source: APE-MEB}