The Lords of the Rings among centaurs

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Chariklo, the largest known centaur object, has revealed the existence of rings during a stellar occultation, surprising astronomers. This discovery suggests that ring systems may be more common among minor celestial bodies than previously thought. The discussion raises questions about the minimum size required for an object to develop rings, noting that as objects decrease in size, their Hill sphere also shrinks, affecting their ability to maintain orbiting bodies. Smaller objects often have irregular shapes, which complicates the formation of stable orbits. The findings highlight the complexities of celestial mechanics and the potential for further discoveries in the solar system.
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The Lords of the Rings among centaurs

(Phys.org)—Chariklo, the largest known centaur object, orbiting in a region between Saturn and Uranus, is a very intriguing celestial body that surprised astronomers last year. This remote minor planet has unveiled the existence of its rings during a stellar occultation, when it passed in front of a star UCAC4 248-108672. Astronomer José Luis Ortiz from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia in Spain, who was a member of the team that made the discovery, assumes that the ring systems on other minor objects in the solar system could be more common than we think.

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Greg Bernhardt said:
Is there a minimum size of an object for rings to develop?
Well, as an object gets smaller, it can be irregularly shaped while at the same time the distance at which a it can hold to orbiting objects ( its Hill sphere) also shrinks. Thus I would assume that if you go small enough, there will be point that the Hill sphere will shrink into that region where the irregular shape of the object has significant effect on orbiting objects and it will not have any zone where orbits can form.
 
The radius of the Hill sphere for smaller objects is proportional to their radius (at a given density). If we scale the object up and keep the shape the same, the influence of the higher moments of its gravitational field at the border of the Hill sphere will stay the same. The same is true for the Roche limit.

Smaller objects tend to have more irregular shapes, however.
 
UC Berkely, December 16, 2025 https://news.berkeley.edu/2025/12/16/whats-powering-these-mysterious-bright-blue-cosmic-flashes-astronomers-find-a-clue/ AT 2024wpp, a luminous fast blue optical transient, or LFBOT, is the bright blue spot at the upper right edge of its host galaxy, which is 1.1 billion light-years from Earth in (or near) a galaxy far, far away. Such objects are very bright (obiously) and very energetic. The article indicates that AT 2024wpp had a peak luminosity of 2-4 x...

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