Illustration of the ringed asteroid Chariklo. This icy body belongs to a group of objects called centaurs, that orbit the Sun between the outer planets. Chariklo orbits between Saturn and Uranus, over 3.2 billion kilometres from Earth. Discovered in 1997, it is the largest centaur, with a diameter of around 250 kilometres. It the smallest known astronomical body to have rings. A possible origin of the rings is a collision that created a disc of debris including water ice. The rings, called Oiapoque and Chui, are around 7 and 3 kilometres wide with an orbital radius of around 400 kilometres. | |
Licence : | Droits gérés |
Crédit: | Science Photo Library / NASA, ESA, CSA, Leah Hustak (STScI) |
Taille de l’image : | 3840 px × 2300 px |
Model Release : | Non requis |
Property Release : | Non requis |
Restrictions : | - |