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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."

6 of 85 comments (clear)

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

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

  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
  3. 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.

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

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

  5. 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.