Astronomers astonished by ring around frigid distant world Quaoar

Quaoar is currently defined as a minor planet and is proposed as a dwarf planet, though it has not yet been formally given that status.

The small distant world called Quaoar, named after a god of creation in Native American mythology, is producing some surprises for astronomers as it orbits beyond Pluto in the frigid outer reaches of our solar system.

Researchers said on Wednesday they have detected a ring encircling Quaoar akin to the one around the planet Saturn. But the one around Quaoar defies the current understanding of where such rings can form - located much further away from it than current scientific understanding would allow.

The distance of the ring from Quaoar places it in a location where scientists believe particles should readily come together around a celestial body to form a moon rather than remain as separate components in a disk of ring material.

"This is the discovery of a ring located in a place that should not be possible," said astronomer Bruno Morgado of the Valongo Observatory and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature.

Discovered in 2002, Quaoar is currently defined as a minor planet and is proposed as a dwarf planet, though it has not yet been formally given that status by the International Astronomical Union, the scientific body that does such things.

Its diameter of about 700 miles (1,110 km) is about a third that of Earth's moon and half that of the dwarf planet Pluto. It has a small moon called Weywot, Quaoar's son in mythology, with a diameter of 105 miles (170 km) orbiting beyond the ring.

Inhabiting a distant region called the Kuiper belt populated by various icy bodies, Quaoar orbits about 43 times further than Earth's distance to the sun. In comparison, Neptune, the outermost planet, orbits about 30 times further than Earth's distance from the sun, and Pluto about 39 times further.