Strange Object Trapped Between Saturn And Uranus Is Transforming Before Our Eyes
December 12, 2023 by SkyWatch Editor
A distant comet trapped in orbit between Saturn and Uranus is accompanied by a transforming disk of icy dust, new observations reveal. A bizarre object that sometimes gets as close to the sun as Saturn, and other times retreats as far out as Uranus, has been discovered to have a transforming disk of dust around it that changes shape and can even mimic rings. Minor planet 2060 Chiron is what’s known as a Centaur, which are captured cometary objects that travel around the sun on looping orbits between Jupiter and Neptune. Chiron is just 218 kilometers (135 miles) across and occasionally has outbursts like a comet. To date, however, no spacecraft has ever visited a Centaur. In 2011, Chiron passed in front of a faint star from our point of view here on Earth. Such events are referred to as “stellar occultations,” and based on how an object such as Chiron blocks a star’s light, the occulting object’s shape and size can be determined through deduction. During the 2011 occultation, it was noticed that the star’s light dimmed slightly — twice before Chiron itself occulted the star, and two further times after Chiron had moved past the star. This observation was interpreted as Chiron having a double-ring system of dust. (READ MORE)