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[00:00.67] Quaoar is a minor planet orbiting the sun beyond Pluto.

[00:06.25] It is named after a god of creation in Native American mythology.

[00:12.89] And it is creating some surprises for astronomers as it orbits in the cold outer parts of our solar system.

[00:23.52] Researchers said recently that they have found a ring surrounding Quaoar similar to the one around the planet Saturn.

[00:34.94] But the ring around Quaoar differs from the current understanding of where rings can form.

[00:42.37] It is located much further away from it than current scientific understanding would permit.

[00:49.83] The distance of the ring from Quaoar places it in a place where scientists believe particles should come together around a planet to form a moon, rather than a ring.

[01:03.91] "This is the discovery of a ring located in a place that should not be possible," said Bruno Morgado.

[01:12.14] He is an astronomer with the Valongo Observatory at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

[01:21.44] He is the lead writer of the study published in Nature.

[01:28.34] Discovered in 2002, Quaoar is currently defined as a minor planet.

[01:35.25] Some scientists are proposing to call it a dwarf planet.

[01:40.04] But it has not yet been officially given that name by the International Astronomical Union, the scientific group that names astronomy objects.

[01:51.45] Quaoar is about 1,110 kilometers across, which is about one third the size of Earth's moon.

[02:02.34] But the minor planet is about half the size of the dwarf planet Pluto.

[02:07.92] Quaoar has a small moon called Weywot, Quaoar's son in mythology.

[02:14.56] It has a diameter of 170 kilometers and orbits beyond the ring.

[02:21.47] Quaoar is in a distant part of the Solar System called the Kuiper belt, which contains many icy bodies.

[02:31.82] It orbits about 43 times the distance from the sun to the Earth.

[02:37.14] Neptune, the most distant planet from the sun, orbits at about 30 times the Earth-to-sun distance.

[02:46.43] Quaoar's ring was discovered using the European Space Agency's orbiting CHEOPS telescope.

[02:55.73] The telescope’s main use is to study planets beyond our solar system.

[03:02.37] The ring is a disk made of ice-covered particles.

[03:06.62] It is about 4,100 kilometers away from Quaoar's center.

[03:12.73] It has a diameter of about 8,200 kilometers.

[03:18.57] Unlike any other known rings around bodies in space, Quaoar's ring is outside what is called the Roche limit.

[03:28.14] That is the distance from any celestial body where it gravitational force would cause an approaching object to be pulled apart.

[03:37.43] Material orbiting outside the Roche limit would be expected to become a moon.

[03:44.87] Saturn has the largest ring system in our solar system.

[03:50.19] The other large gas planets - Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune - all have rings, but not as big.

[03:59.48] Other non-planetary bodies, Chariklo and Haumea, also have rings.

[04:06.66] All are inside the Roche limit.

[04:10.37] Why is Quaoar’s ring outside the Roche limit?

[04:14.63] Isabella Pagano is with the Astrophysical Observatory of Catania and one of the study’s writers.

[04:23.38] She said rings could form from debris when the body was formed, or when something collided with the minor planet or another body.

[04:35.08] But: “We do not have hints at the moment on how the Quaoar ring formed," Pagano said.

[04:43.04] She added that the science on how large bodies like moons are created might “need to be revised.”