A little moonlet, too small to be seen from Earth, could be playing cosmic sheepdog by shaping the thin rings around the distant minor planet Chariklo.

Centaur Chariklo was first discovered in 2013, with scientists using the Webb telescope to capture shadows of starlight cast by its thin rings in 2023.

Does Jupiter have rings? How about Uranus? Here's everything you need to know about which planets have rings.

Until then, everything we knew about the physics of how planets’ rings form said that a tiny little “minor planet” like Chariklo just didn’t have the gravity to maintain a ring system for ...

Ring systems are relatively rare in the Solar System, and as well as those around Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, only two minor planets possess rings - Chariklo and Haumea.

The other large gas planets – Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune – all have rings, though less impressive, as do the non-planetary bodies Chariklo and Haumea. All reside inside the Roche limit.

It's called 2060 Chiron, and it's believed to be both a minor planet and a comet. The object (first discovered in 1977) is surrounded by material orbiting it – previously believed to be a set of ...

Ring systems are relatively rare in the Solar System, and as well as those around Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, only two minor planets possess rings – Chariklo and Haumea.

Ring systems are relatively rare in the Solar System, and as well as those around Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, only two minor planets possess rings – Chariklo and Haumea.

The other large gas planets - Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune - all have rings, though less impressive, as do the non-planetary bodies Chariklo and Haumea. All reside inside the Roche limit.

It's called 2060 Chiron, and it's believed to be both a minor planet and a comet. The object (first discovered in 1977) is surrounded by material orbiting it – previously believed to be a set of ...