News Astronomy

The Kuiper Belt’s dwarf planet Quaoar hosts an impossible ring

The ring lies outside a typical, mathematically determined distance from the small world

An illustration of the dwarf planet Quaoar.

Dwarf planet Quaoar, shown in this artist's illustration, is only the third small object in the solar system with a known ring.

Illustration Credit: NASA, G. Bacon/STScI; Science Credit: NASA, M. Brown/Caltech

By Lisa Grossman

The dwarf planet Quaoar has a ring that is too big for its metaphorical fingers. While all other rings in the solar system lie within or near a mathematically determined distance of their parent bodies, Quaoar’s ring is much farther out.