Sheffield scientists behind discovery of rare rings around dwarf planet

The rings around Quaoar are too faint to be seen by a telescope

Previously unseen rings around a dwarf planet on the edge of our solar system have been discovered using a camera developed at the University of Sheffield.

The rings which were found around Quaoar are similar to ones found around Saturn.

An international team of astronomers located them using the HiPERCAM - an extremely sensitive high-speed camera developed by Sheffield scientists.

The camera is mounted on the world’s largest optical telescope in the Canary Islands.

Quaoar was discovered in 2002 and is around 690 miles (1,110km) in diameter, which is about half the diameter of Pluto.

According to the University of Sheffield, the rings were too small and faint to see directly in an image.

However, researchers discovered them when light from a star was blocked by Quaoar as it orbited the sun.

The dips in brightness, known as an occultation, indicated the presence of a ring system, the scientists said.

The rings were discovered when light from a star was blocked during the orbit of Quaoar

Professor Vik Dhillon from the university's Department of Physics and Astronomy, said the HiPERCAM "was key to this discovery as the event lasted less than one minute".

“It was unexpected to discover this new ring system in our solar system and it was doubly unexpected to find the rings so far out from Quaoar, challenging our previous notions of how such rings form.

“Everyone learns about Saturn's magnificent rings when they're a child, so hopefully this new finding will provide further insight into how they came to be.”

The Sheffield scientists were part of a group of 59 universities around the world working on the research project.