At 6.5 billion kilometers from us exists a dwarf-planet called Quaoar. The trans-Neptunian body has a radius of just 555 kilometers or a diameter of about 1110 kilometers. The dwarf-planet is part of the Kuiper Belt and is half the size of Pluto which was demoted from a ninth planet to a dwarf-planet by the International Astronomical Unit in 2006 much to the chagrin of Pluto lovers. So Quaoar is really dwarf.
Scientists at the University of Sheffield in England led by Professor Vik Dhillon have now found that Quaoar has rings around it and that too at a distance they should not be. They are similar to Saturn, which, incidentally, is 116,500 kilometers in diameter, making it 104 times the size of Quaoar. What this means is that planetary bodies and dwarf-planetary bodies can have rings notwithstanding such a massive difference in their sizes.
A paper published in Nature says what is extraordinary about the Quaoar rings is that they are located outside what is known as the Roche limit. Given its distance from us, it is nearly impossible to view it directly. Hence scientists have to do it during what is known as occultation when it passes directly in from of the sun giving it a silhouette that we can observe. As it passed in front of the sun, there was one sharp dip in the sunlight was observed which was expected. What was not expected was that there were two smaller dips in the sunlight, one before and the other after. That indicated the presence of rings.
What has intrigued scientists is that the rings are at a distance more than seven planetary radii or in other words they should have been at about 3885 kilometers but in reality they are twice as far away. The seven radii limit is known as the Roche limit. The distance of the Quaoar rings have confounded scientists.
Beyond these specifics, I have always marveled at how we are so blissfully oblivious to billions of parallel worlds that exist in the universe with no apparent purpose or meaning at all. That brings me to my eternal question in Hindi addressed to Jupiter but one that applies to everything in the universe. "Yeh Jupiter karta kya hai, yaar? (What does Jupiter do?). Add to that "Yeh Quaoar karta kya hai, yaar?"