James Webb reveals Chariklo’s mysterious rings are changing faster than expected

The James Webb Space Telescope revealed surprising changes in the rings around Chariklo, a small object orbiting between Saturn and Uranus. Over just a few years, its inner ring became more opaque while its outer ring became less opaque. The results suggest that rings around small Solar System bodies may be much more dynamic than scientists previously believed.

What is causing the changes remains a mystery. James Webb reveals Chariklo’s mysterious rings are changing faster than expected. James Webb reveals Chariklo’s mysterious rings are changing faster than expected Science News from research organizations James Webb reveals Chariklo’s mysterious rings are changing faster than expected New observations show that Chariklo’s two rings have changed significantly in only a few years.

The bright point in the upper-right corner represents the Sun as seen from Chariklo’s distance. Maquet, Observatoire de Paris For most of modern astronomy, rings were associated only with the Solar System’s giant planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. That picture changed in 2013, when astronomers discovered two dense rings around Chariklo, a small object only about 250 kilometers across that travels between Saturn and Uranus, nearly 17 times farther from the Sun than Earth.

Now, new observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) show that those rings are not as stable as scientists once assumed.