Asteroid-Comet Hybrid Found With Surprise Ring System

discovery.com ^ | Ian O'Neill

[BenLurkin]

“It’s interesting, because Chiron is a centaur — part of that middle section of the solar system, between Jupiter and Pluto, where we originally weren’t thinking things would be active, but it’s turning out things are quite active,” said Amanda Bosh, of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Mass.

First discovered in 1977, it became apparent that centaurs were, on the whole, fairly dormant. Like their mythological counterpart — which is part man, part animal — celestial centaurs possess qualities of comets and asteroids. They are undoubtedly rocky, dusty objects, but in the 1980′s astronomers noted comet-like activity on the large centaur Chiron.

Since then, brightening events have been spotted on Chiron, linked to jets of material being ejected from the surface by ices being slowly heated by the dim sunlight, subliming vapor into space.

...

After analysis of these occulation data, the researchers revealed a surprise — two sharp, symmetrical features were detected before and after the few minutes that Chiron blocked the light of the distant star. These features could be interpreted as a ring system, two bands 3 and 7 kilometers wide with a radius of 300 kilometers from the center of the centaur, adding detail to Elliot’s original observations in the 1990′s.

[cripplecreek]

Actually I think there is one other non planetary object that is known to have a ring but I can’t remember the name of it right now.

[DannyTN]

And this is why asteroids and comets should be segregated. First you get a comet with a ring, then you get an asteroid with a tail. Then you’ll have objects with tail rings, ring tails, ...it’ll be complete chaos!

[webheart]

Well, what makes a comet a comet? The orbit is elliptical, and it gets the tail flowing out from it as it travels close to the sun. An identical object in a circular orbit far from the sun would never have the tail so it really could never be called a comet.

An asteroid is only an asteroid because it is in a circular orbit around the sun. Orbiting any other body, it would be called a moon of that body. Diemos and Phobos are both tiny rocky objects that really look a lot like asteroids. Some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn are icy objects that probably would be comets if they were in the right kind of orbits.

Chiron is a lot like Pluto but orbits much closer to the sun. It might have been termed a planet for a while had it been discovered sooner. And any of these objects would be called comets if they passed closer to the sun.

[Conan the Librarian]

Comets are rocky ice-balls.

Asteroids are Icy-rock balls.

Can’t you see the difference? :)

[faithhopecharity]

celestial miscegenation

could lead to horrible monsters

(Kenyan Indonesian Arab Muslim IslamoNazi Communist Mulatto Illegal- Immigrant political hacks with rings in their ears?)

[JusPasenThru]

And this is why asteroids and comets should be segregated. First you get a comet with a ring, then you get an asteroid with a tail. Then you’ll have objects with tail rings, ring tails, ...it’ll be complete chaos!

Dogs and cats...living together...

[tumblindice]

Many find this hard to believe, but Comet-asterrhoid hybrids are merely Gamera's dingleberries.

[Talisker]

Well it's spherical and surrounded by a ring, but also accompanied by longitudinal gravitational spikes and an overall central foundation, presumably an asteroidal rocky core. The system itself is exhibiting unusual velocity components, and there seems to be associated electromagnetic frequencies of non-normal strength characteristics.