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Astronomers Find Vast Ring System Eclipsing a Distant Star

Posted by Soulskill on from the one-ring-to-occlude-them-all dept.

Zothecula writes: Astronomers from the Leiden Observatory, Netherlands, and the University of Rochester, New York, have discovered a massive ring system obscuring the light of the young star J1407b. It is believed that the rings belong to a massive planet or possibly a brown dwarf, with an orbital period of roughly 10 years. The giant planet boasts a ring system around 200 times larger than that of Saturn, the only planet in our solar system hosting a ring system of its own."

85 comments

  1. Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings, not just Saturn.

    1. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by magarity · · Score: 1

      Neither article makes this mistake; it must be the summary submitter.

    2. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by Dantoo · · Score: 0

      It's hard to see but Urectum definitely has a ring!

    3. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by Jerry+Rivers · · Score: 2

      Just wondering if, as far as we know, only gas giants have rings?

      --
      The pursuit of absolute tolerance leads to the most rigorous and ludicrous intolerance. - REX MURPHY
    4. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In my case, it doesn't have a ring.

    5. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Rings need gravity to hold them in place, low temperature to stop them from dissipating and need to be far enough from the parent star not to be blown away. You also need a replenishing source of material otherwise the ring material will coalesce over time.

      Maybe a rocky planet a few times bigger than earth could hold a ring made of the element mercury at a distance of from the sun as Mars.

    6. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I believe that at some recent time, Earth had rings that coalesced to become our Moon.

      P.S. This news is well over a week old.

    7. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I meant, "at some recent time I read," It's one of those days.

    8. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You also need a replenishing source of material otherwise the ring material will coalesce over time.

      Not if they are near enough to a strong gravity well, such as a large planet.

    9. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by magarity · · Score: 2

      One of the items on the new horizons checklist is to see if Pluto has rings.

    10. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by D-Fly · · Score: 2

      Every grammar school kid knows that the other gas giants also have (faint) ring systems. How did the submitter AND the Slashdot editor put such a ridiculous mistake on the front page of a nerd site? (Also this is kind of old news, widely reported last week).

      --
      \
    11. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Our moon used to be larger, approximately the size of Mars. At some point it collided with Earth, adding mass to our world and ejecting a smaller amount back out which formed into a ring and then eventually condensed into what we know of as our moon.

    12. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by reverseengineer · · Score: 3, Informative

      No, the centaur object Chariklo (an icy asteroid between Saturn and Uranus) was recently discovered (2013) to have a set of rings, and a few other objects in that size range are suspected to.

      --
      "FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."
    13. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by arth1 · · Score: 2

      Just wondering if, as far as we know, only gas giants have rings?

      No

      And to be pedantic, the ice giants have them too.

    14. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, if the ring forms within the Roche limit it won't coalesce but if it's that close it won't be stable for other reasons.

    15. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by sconeu · · Score: 1

      Maybe it should wipe out the Klingons, then.

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    16. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Every planetary ring system in our solar system reside within the Roche limit of their respective host planet.

    17. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by arth1 · · Score: 2

      One of the items on the new horizons checklist is to see if Pluto has rings.

      Just a collar.

      What's fascinating about Pluto is how it could capture so many satellites. The Pluto/Charon binary is not all that massive, and any passersbys are likely to have a relatively high speed. Looking for mpact craters might tell us more - some of the moons might be fragments from relatively recent collisions.

    18. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Earth has a ring system too, even if it's artificial.

    19. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not an expert, but I believe the theory is that rings are created when a bunch of smaller moons smash into each other over and over. A larger body like a gas giant is more likely to have lots of moons to smash into each other, so they'd be the most likely to have prominent ring systems.

      IIRC even rocky planets have extremely faint ring systems?

    20. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have that backwards. Planets and moons form out of the detritus, not the other way around.

    21. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not quite.

      The most probable theory is that Earth was struck by a Mars sized object and the collision ejected a lot of material which formed a temporary ring system before coalescing into the Moon. However the object which struck Earth was not in orbit around Earth and was destroyed in the collision (so it was never a moon of Earth, and no longer exists) .

    22. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I fail to see where I claimed it was in orbit around Earth before the collision.

      Try not to put words into other people's mouths.

    23. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by Snarky+McButtface · · Score: 3, Funny

      Odin destroyed the ice giants.

    24. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by kelemvor4 · · Score: 1

      Every grammar school kid knows that the other gas giants also have (faint) ring systems. How did the submitter AND the Slashdot editor put such a ridiculous mistake on the front page of a nerd site? (Also this is kind of old news, widely reported last week).

      You must be new here, welcome to slashdot.

    25. Re: Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Moon implies orbit

    26. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You said it was a moon, you stupid cunt.

    27. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by styrotech · · Score: 1

      Neither article makes this mistake; it must be the summary submitter.

      And what makes you think it was a mistake?

      80% of the comments are about the 'mistake' in the summary. The slashdot editors are probably playing 'made you look!' to drive up ad revenue.

    28. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by Rei · · Score: 1

      1. Uranus and Neptune are more properly termed ice giants than gas giants.
      2. Two dwarf planets in our own solar system - Chariklo and Chiron - are believed to have rings. Its suspected that Phobos will one day turn into a ring around Mars.

      --
      I would have you sign my banana, but it's on the roof.
    29. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      Earth will also have rings if men keep adding satellites all the time.

      --
      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    30. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, because it's our moon right now, you weak-minded little bitch.

    31. Re: Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you saying the moon isn't in orbit of the Earth? Take a look up at the night sky some time.

    32. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      I heard the inflation of its space metric was driven by the introduction of a dark matter candidate.

    33. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by rubycodez · · Score: 2

      Slashdot under Dice Holdings is rather like a cleanroom under management of poo flinging monkeys

    34. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's hard to see but Urectum definitely has a ring!

      Try inverted view with a large parabolic mirror and a smaller secondary flat mirror.

    35. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by StevenMaurer · · Score: 2

      I usually browse at a score of "0" because sometimes Anonymous Cowards say interesting things. You two are making me regret that.

    36. Re:Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Online news sources frequently ghost-edit stories to make people pointing out flaws in them look stupid.

  2. Wait, what? by Red4man · · Score: 5, Informative

    planet boasts a ring system around 200 times larger than that of Saturn, the only planet in our solar system hosting a ring system of its own.

    Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune would like to have a word with you.

    Planets with Rings

    --
    Sock Puppets: damn_registrars=pudge_confirmer=jimmy_slimmy=raiigunner=cml4524=a_klavan=red4men=ronpaulisanidiot
    1. Re:Wait, what? by agm · · Score: 1

      How can the submitter get this very simple fact wrong, and how can the approver of the submission let it slip by?

    2. Re:Wait, what? by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

      You must be new here.

      --
      Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
    3. Re:Wait, what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The only *ONLY* way I can find that statement acceptable (which I haven't verified yet) is if there is a difference between the "individual rings" of Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune and the "ring system" of Saturn.

      (Does 60 seconds of research.)

      Nope. Astronomers don't seem to differentiate. The rings of Neptune, Uranus, and Jupiter are commonly called "ring systems" as well. Even Saturn's moon Rhea's hypothesized rings are referred to as a "ring system."

    4. Re:Wait, what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe because the "Science!" crowd is a bunch of ignoramuses who like to present themselves as learned?
       
      Let's face facts, Slashdot's science knowledge is a joke. Just a bunch of Geek Squad rejects and Star Wars fans who like to think they know a bit of science because they watch MythBusters.

  3. Wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Redundant

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rings_of_Neptune
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rings_of_Jupiter

  4. So... Whatever happened to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The rings of Jupiter and the others that have been discovered? Certainly it's been shown that Saturn is NOT the only ring system in the solar system.

  5. Fact check the summary. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Last I checked all of the gas giants and ice giants have a ring system. Saturn's just happens to be particularly flashy.

  6. only Saturn? wut? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "...the only planet in our solar system hosting a ring system of its own..." ???

    is this a troll? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_ring

  7. Dyson sphere by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Could it be a partial Dyson sphere, or a Dyson sphere under construction?

    1. Re:Dyson sphere by zlives · · Score: 1

      you mean ringworld

    2. Re:Dyson sphere by sexconker · · Score: 2

      No. A Dyson sphere is impractical and stupid.
      No civilization smart enough to be able to build one would be dumb enough to actually do so.

    3. Re:Dyson sphere by Russ1642 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Humanity is smart enough to do lots of great things and dumb enough to do a bunch of others. I'll bet other civilizations share the same traits.

    4. Re:Dyson sphere by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are obviously smarter than technically advanced super civilizations AND Freeman Dyson.

    5. Re:Dyson sphere by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A Dyson sphere would allow a civilisation to harness a great deal of energy from its host star. Assuming a sufficiently advanced species could easily produce and move them around, that's a lot of free energy and living or storage space. Hardly impractical if they have the means.

      But what would they know? Some random, primitive human said it was stupid.

    6. Re:Dyson sphere by sexconker · · Score: 1

      It would take more energy to build it and move the harnessed energy back (to the other solar system where you want it), than you would get out of it. Further, this is entirely unworkable on any realistic time schedule unless you could exceed the speed of light, at which point you wouldn't need a dyson sphere (or much of anything, really) because you'd have the ability to violate causality.

      If you want it in same system, then you'll be blocking out your own star (or one of them) and utterly fucking your system.

    7. Re:Dyson sphere by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A Dyson sphere would be able to harness nearly all of the radiant energy from its host star for billions of years. That would more than offset the initial energy cost of producing it.

      There would be plenty of space to live on a Dyson sphere as well.

    8. Re:Dyson sphere by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I like how Niven ripped off Halo for his books.

    9. Re:Dyson sphere by NostalgiaForInfinity · · Score: 2

      They might build it, you know, just for fun. Why not?

    10. Re:Dyson sphere by Neil+Boekend · · Score: 1

      If you're willing to pay for it the Magratheans will probably build it for you.

      --
      Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
  8. Now, THERE's a tourist attraction... by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Since so many people have already stepped up to shame the submitter and editor about botching the ONE statement not drawn directly from the article...

    I'll just say that I would love to see a night sky featuring this ring system at, oh, say, Jupiter's distance from Earth. It would appear several times larger than the full Moon, and many, many times brighter. Anybody want to cook up a rendering?

    1. Re:Now, THERE's a tourist attraction... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Since so many people have already stepped up to shame the submitter and editor about botching the ONE statement not drawn directly from the article...

      I'll just say that I would love to see a night sky featuring this ring system at, oh, say, Jupiter's distance from Earth. It would appear several times larger than the full Moon, and many, many times brighter. Anybody want to cook up a rendering?

      This is stale news; the BBC covered it and included an artist's impression in this article more than a week ago.

    2. Re:Now, THERE's a tourist attraction... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you implying they shouldn't be shamed? Kindergarten kids with a passing interest in being a space man know that all the big planets have rings.

    3. Re:Now, THERE's a tourist attraction... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'll just say that I would love to see a night sky featuring this ring system at, oh, say, Jupiter's distance from Earth. It would appear several times larger than the full Moon, and many, many times brighter. Anybody want to cook up a rendering?

      The first reply to yours contains the BBC story with artists impression of this particular system:
      http://www.bbc.com/news/scienc...

      However there have been plenty of artist conceptions drawn and rendered of the exact scene you describe.
      Here's an image search to one (very good) artist site with a ton of these:
      https://www.google.com/search?...

      I'm sure there's plenty more out there too.

    4. Re:Now, THERE's a tourist attraction... by orlanz · · Score: 1

      Looking at the artist's rendering from the other posts. That is huge and would be so cool! If the axis was pointing at us, would the reflected sunlight cause massive temperature changes here? Would we all get a tan every 20 years as we pass through this "laser beam"?

    5. Re:Now, THERE's a tourist attraction... by pgfuller · · Score: 1

      There is no "laser beam". Reflection from the ring particles would be quite random in direction rather than directed like from a mirror. Most ring particles are small, likely to be rough and oriented pretty randomly. Sure it would be brighter when it is more face on but that is just a result of the greater amount of bright area that is visible. The moon shows a relatively flat image to us rather than an obvious sphere for the same reason. The surface is composed of randomly oriented rough particles so light scatters pretty equally in all directions irrespective of the angle of the average surface to an observer. Within the star system and assuming pretty much co-planar planetary orbits, unless the axis of the ring system lies in the same plane as that of the location from which you are observing from, the axis can never actually point at you. Chances are high that the axis is not co-planar. Still it would be an awesome sight. Uranus has an axial tilt of 97.77 degrees so it is close to being in the plane of the ecliptic but a little off. It is thought to be the result of a massive collision early in the Solar System formation. While it would be spectacular, the actual amount of radiation and the frequency ranges in the reflected light would be visible but far from damaging. Hold your hand up and feel the lack of heat from a full moon at night. Sunlight is about 500,000 times more powerful than full moon light. Finally, it is a very long way from Earth so 'we' are not going to be in any danger at all. It was only detected through blocking the host star's light. It might make a good observing target when it is in opposition but still don't expect clear Saturn-like images until we build a multi-kilometer sized telescope (or equivalent).

    6. Re:Now, THERE's a tourist attraction... by orlanz · · Score: 1

      I was thinking along the lines of it being in place of Saturn. And looking at the artist's rendering, it is huge. Star light (in remote locations) is actually enough to make your way around at night. Moon light is almost like streetlights.

      If this thing was in place of Saturn, and tilted like Uranus. Saturn is huge, at 200x that, that is a pretty big object that is relatively close. I suspect it would be the brightest thing at night and probably visible during the day too.

      Thou you are right, being that close, the light is the least of our worry, possibly being a brown dwarf and all.

  9. De Beers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Why give her a diamond when you can give her the biggest ring in the know universe.

  10. Details from Afar by Tablizer · · Score: 2

    I think it's cool that using the profile of the star brightness peaks and valleys as various parts of the ring eclipsed the star, one can reconstruct an approximation of what the rings actually look like.

    Even though the planet is so very far away, there are various tricks to obtain details. Gravity lenses are another "trick of universe" to magnify distant objects that otherwise would be very obscure or invisible. The down-side is that one cannot really "aim" these tricks, but have to be lucky and/or patient to take advantage of them. The universe likes to tease us.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  11. Ringworld - beware the Pak by slincolne · · Score: 1

    Looks like Larry Niven was closer to the truth than he new.

    1. Re:Ringworld - beware the Pak by jheath314 · · Score: 1

      That was my first thought too, except the ring belongs to a planet (or brown dwarf, at best), not the primary star.

      Plus, no matter how cool the Ringworld is as a feat of engineering, it would probably just end up inhabited by a bunch of stupid pre-Industrial savages. /mutters stupid Ringworld Throne...

      --
      Procrastination Man strikes again!
    2. Re:Ringworld - beware the Pak by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe close to smoke ring

    3. Re:Ringworld - beware the Pak by slincolne · · Score: 1
      What - you read the actual post?

      That's not how Slashdot is supposed to work :-)

  12. Cue the appearance of... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    a Pierson's Puppeteer. Somebody hand me my droud.

  13. Wow... by TheMattRay · · Score: 1

    Microsoft has really outdone itself in marketing the next Halo game!

  14. They should rename that star by Snotnose · · Score: 4, Funny

    to "finger", cuz someone put a ring on it.

    1. Re:They should rename that star by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      At first I thought that had to be a uranus joke...

  15. Why add retarded statements? by nedlohs · · Score: 1

    "the only planet in our solar system hosting a ring".

    Honestly you have to be pretty uninformed to think such a thing to start with. But it's a whole new level of stupidity to take that extra step to present your lack of education as a statement of fact.

    If you type "planet ring" into google the quoted text at the top is:

    """
    A planetary ring is a disk or ring of dust, moonlets, or other small objects orbiting a planet or similar body. The most notable planetary rings in the Solar System are those around Saturn, but the other three gas giants (Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune) also possess ring systems.
    """

    Seriously just how stupid are the submitter and "editor"?

  16. Artist's impression by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    I love that artist's impression. Have there ever been any giant ring systems like this in sci-fi? If not, there should be. Maybe when I get the funding for my re-imagining of Forbidden Planet...

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    1. Re:Artist's impression by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Depending on how close to "reality" you want the story to be there are many.

      Ringworld et al. Halo et al, Integral Trees are the three that come immedialtely to mind.

      BTW 200 times more massive sounds like a lot but when you consider the size of a solar system its still mostly nothing.

    2. Re:Artist's impression by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      Ringworld et al. Halo et al

      Those are "rings," but they're nothing to do with planetary rings like those around Saturn or this new world.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  17. Uranus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I believe the OP or TFA is talking out of Uranus

  18. HALO! by funkymonkjay · · Score: 1

    get with yall! so disappointing. and we call this place news for nerds. shame.

  19. Earth also has a ring by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Of space junk, but it's there.

  20. If only gas giants have rings . . . by mmell · · Score: 1

    . . . then the only planets with rings will be gas giants!

  21. Roche limit by Neil+Boekend · · Score: 1

    Can the Roche limit of a planet be so big? I would expect this to coalesce into moons quite fast.
    Or it might be a small black hole. They have quite big Roche limits.

    --
    Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.