Astronomers have discovered the first asteroid with rings, orbiting between Saturn and Uranus.
Named Chariklo, the asteroid has two dense, narrow rings and is now the fifth known ringed world in our solar system, along with Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, NBC News reported.
The rock measures around 160 miles wide and is the largest in a collection of space objects called Centaurs that primarily orbit between Jupiter and Neptune. Centaurs have characteristics of both comets, which are composed of ice and dust, and asteroids, which are formed from metallic rocks and often move in a cluster.
The astronomers reported the discovery on Wednesday when Chariklo passed in front of a distant star and its two rings were revealed, the AFP reported. Seven telescopes in a 930-mile-long area of South America were trained on the asteroid.
The space rock blocked the star as expected, but the scientists were shocked to see more occultation than they had earlier thought.
"A few seconds before, and again a few seconds after the main occultation, there were two further very short dips in the star's apparent brightness," the European Southern Observatory (ESO) said in a statement quoted by the AFP.
The team members detailed their findings in a report published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
"We weren't looking for a ring and didn't think small bodies like Chariklo had them at all, so the discovery, and the amazing amount of detail we saw in the system, came as a complete surprise," Felipe Braga Ribas of Brazil's National Observatory said in a statement.
Because the asteroid's rings are so distinctly defined, the astronomers believe it may have stabilizing "shepherd moons."
Braga-Ribas said, "It's likely that Chariklo has at least one small moon still waiting to be discovered."
See Now: OnePlus 6: How Different Will It Be From OnePlus 5?
