Speaker
Description
To date, ring systems have been confirmed around four small bodies: Chariklo, Haumea, Quaoar, and Chiron. From Earth, discovering these tenuous structures around these distant and small bodies is only possible using stellar occultations. This technique involves observing a small solar system body crossing in front of a star, blocking the flux for an observer.
The ring systems known around small bodies display remarkably diverse properties. Quaoar’s system is particularly intriguing. Its outer ring, Q1R, exhibits pronounced azimuthal variations in radial width and opacity, whereas the available detections of the inner ring, Q2R, show comparable properties on opposite sides of Quaoar, suggesting a more azimuthally homogeneous structure. Moreover, both rings orbit well beyond Quaoar’s classical Roche limit, challenging conventional expectations for the formation and long-term persistence of dense rings.
Here, we present a homogeneous analysis of multi-epoch stellar occultations observed between 2018 and 2026. Our primary objectives are to refine the geometry of Q1R and investigate its radial and longitudinal structure. We also use the available Q2R detections to constrain its radial location and pole orientation and to test whether the two rings are coplanar. Finally, using the highest-quality light curves from each event, we search for additional occultation signatures beyond Q1R that could be associated with the putative satellite ring or belt proposed by Braga-Ribas et al. (2026).
| CPF | 08559860932 |
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