Researchers have discovered that the ring system that they see eclipse the very young Sun-like star J1407 is of enormous proportions, much larger and heavier than the ring system of Saturn. This system is the first of its kind to be found outside Earth's solar system.

Astronomers at the Leiden Observatory in The Netherlands and the University of Rochester in New York have discovered that the ring system that they see eclipse the very young Sun-like star J1407 is of enormous proportions, much larger and heavier than the ring system of Saturn. The ring system — the first of its kind to be found outside our solar system — was discovered in 2012 by a team led by Rochester’s Eric Mamajek.

A new analysis of the data, led by Leiden’s Matthew Kenworthy, shows that the ring system consists of over 30 rings, each of them tens of millions of kilometers in diameter. Furthermore, they found gaps in the rings, which indicate that satellites (“exomoons”) may have formed. The result has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.

“The details that we see in the light curve are incredible. The eclipse lasted for several weeks, but you see rapid changes on time scales of tens of minutes as a result of fine structures in the rings,” says Kenworthy. “The star is much too far away to observe the rings directly, but we could make a detailed model based on the rapid brightness variations in the starlight passing through the ring system. If we could replace Saturn’s rings with the rings around J1407b, they would be easily visible at night and be many times larger than the full Moon.”

“This planet is much larger than Jupiter or Saturn, and its ring system is roughly 200 times larger than Saturn’s rings are today,” said co-author Mamajek, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Rochester. “You could think of it as kind of a super Saturn.”

The astronomers analyzed data from the SuperWASP project — a survey that is designed to detect gas giants that move in front of their parent star. In 2012, Mamajek and colleagues at the University of Rochester reported the discovery of the young star J1407 and the unusual eclipses, and they proposed that they were caused by a moon-forming disk around a young giant planet or brown dwarf.

In a third, more recent study also led by Kenworthy, adaptive optics and Doppler spectroscopy were used to estimate the mass of the ringed object. Their conclusions based on these and previous papers on the intriguing system J1407 is that the companion is likely to be a giant planet — not yet seen — with a gigantic ring system responsible for the repeated dimming of J1407’s light.

The light curve tells astronomers that the diameter of the ring system is nearly 120 million kilometers (~74 million miles), more than 200 times as large as the rings of Saturn. The ring system likely contains roughly an Earth’s worth of mass in light-obscuring dust particles.

Mamajek puts into context how much material is contained in these disks and rings.

“If you were to grind up the four large Galilean moons of Jupiter into dust and ice and spread out the material over their orbits in a ring around Jupiter, the ring would be so opaque to light that a distant observer that saw the ring pass in front of the Sun would see a very deep, multi-day eclipse,” Mamajek says. “In the case of J1407, we see the rings blocking as much as 95 percent of the light of this young Sun-like star for days, so there is a lot of material there that could then form satellites.”

In the data, the astronomers found at least one clean gap in the ring structure, which is more clearly defined in the new model. “One obvious explanation is that a satellite formed and carved out this gap,” says Kenworthy. “The mass of the satellite could be between that of Earth and Mars. The satellite would have an orbital period of approximately two years around J1407b.”

Astronomers expect that the rings will become thinner in the next several million years and eventually disappear as satellites form from the material in the disks.

“The planetary science community has theorized for decades that planets like Jupiter and Saturn would have had, at an early stage, disks around them that then led to the formation of satellites,” Mamajek explains. “However, until we discovered this object in 2012, no one had seen such a ring system. This is the first snapshot of satellite formation on million-kilometer scales around a substellar object.”

Astronomers estimate that the ringed companion J1407b has an orbital period roughly a decade in length. The mass of J1407b has been difficult to constrain, but it is most likely in the range of about 10 to 40 Jupiter masses.

The researchers encourage amateur astronomers to help monitor J1407, which would help detect the next eclipse of the rings, and constrain the period and mass of the ringed companion. Observations of J1407 can be reported to the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). In the meantime, the astronomers are searching other photometric surveys looking for eclipses by yet undiscovered ring systems.

Kenworthy adds that finding eclipses from more objects like J1407’s companion “is the only feasible way we have of observing the early conditions of satellite formation for the near future. J1407’s eclipses will allow us to study the physical and chemical properties of satellite-spawning circumplanetary disks.”

Provided by The University of Rochester.

References: arXiv, Rochester University

Via Futurism.

The second largest planet in our solar system, adorned with thousands of beautiful ringlets, Saturn is unique among the planets. It is not the only planet to have rings -- made of chunks of ice and rock -- but none are as spectacular or as complicated as Saturn's. Like fellow gas giant Jupiter, Saturn is a massive ball of mostly hydrogen and helium.  Surrounding by 53 confirmed and nine provisional moons, Saturn is home to some of the most fascinating landscapes in our solar system. From the jets of Enceladus to the methane lakes on smoggy Titan, the Saturn system is a rich source of scientific discovery and still holds many mysteries.

The farthest planet from Earth observable by the unaided human eye, Saturn has been known since ancient times and is named for the Roman god of agriculture and wealth. The Greek equivalent was Cronos, the father of Zeus/Jupiter.

Just Last April, NASA's Cassini spacecraft recorded Saturn for nearly 44 hours without a break. This amazing time-lapse shortens those 44-hours into less than 2 minutes. Enjoy and stay curious!

Video courtesy of NASA

A 15-year-old boy, from Seaford, East Sussex, captured an awesome picture of Saturn using a personal telescope in his back garden that many experienced astrophysicists would be proud of. Marcus Reed was able to take this perfect picture of the Saturn, as well as its entire rings, using a reflector telescope of diameter 102mm. According to Marcus Reed, he stayed up till 4 am, using an iPhone app called Sky Guide to pinpoint the Saturn in the sky.

He said: “I took the picture at four in the morning. I turned on the app and saw that Saturn was evident, so straight away I put my slippers on and ran downstairs, setting up my telescope on the back lawn in my pajamas. I was pleasantly amazed when I looked back and saw I got such a clear picture - Saturn is my favorite planet. 'I have been interested in astronomy and photography for a long time, and I really enjoy it - I use my telescope every night when it's clear.”

The Gas Giant (Saturn) is the sixth planet from in the Solar System and also the second largest in the solar system. Saturn has been observed by astrophysicists in the night's sky since early times.

Tom Kerss, an astrophysicist at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, said: “Marcus has done an amazing job at capturing such a clear view of Saturn we might see with our eyes using a good beginner’s telescope.

The familiar rings are clearly seen surrounding the Saturn, which as of this month is rising before the Sun.

Currently one of Saturn’s poles appears to be covered by its rings, which are more inclined from our view, but in 7 years or so Saturn will once again look just like Marcus has captured it here.”

Ladies and gentlemen, hold my coffee while I drool over this mind-bending image of Saturn—revealing waves of clouds swirling high above the planet. The image was snapped by the Cassini spacecraft at an altitude of 750,000 miles.

The image was snapped by the Cassini spacecraft’s narrow-angle camera which takes advantage of a combination of “spectral filters” allowing it preferentially admit different wavelengths of near-infrared light reports NASA.

This, never-before-seen image (False-color) of Saturn was beamed back by the Cassini spacecraft was captured using the narrow-angle camera on May 18.

NASA indicates in a report how this image is centered at 46 degrees north latitude on Saturn.

This mind-bending view of Saturn was snapped at a distance of around 1.2 million kilometers—or 750,000 miles if you prefer—from the gas giant.

A rare beauty snapped by the Cassini spacecraft. Check out the Full-Res TIFF PIA21341.tif

NASA notes how the image scale is around 7 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel.

If you look closely, you’ll observe how Saturn’s upper atmosphere generates a faint haze seen along the limb of the planet in this awesome image.

Cassini’s narrow-angle camera took advantage of a combination of “spectral filters” to preferentially admit different wavelengths of near-infrared light reports NASA.

Visit https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov

Image Credit: NASA