In 2015 , astronomers discovereda satellite with a ring systemmore than a hundred time larger than Saturn ’s hoop . Such a gigantic system could be destroyed very chop-chop , so scientist looked into what could make it unchanging . They discovered that the rings must rotate in the opposite management compared to the planet ’s rotation around its whiz , called J1407 .
Steven Rieder from the RIKEN institute in Japan and Matthew Kenworthy from Leiden University have imitate several scenario to explain the peculiar world . The team discovered that the most potential explanation for what ’s observe is a major planet between 60 to 100 times the mass of Jupiter with a large retrograde rotating ring .
The data advise that the planet is on a very outlandish orbit , going from very close to the star to very far every 11 years . The gravity of the mavin at the closest plan of attack is enough to rip the doughnut apart but as long as they are spinning the other manner , they are stable for more than 100,000 age .
" It might be far - get : monolithic rings that rotate in opposite direction , but we now have aim that a ' normal ' ring scheme can not survive , ” said lead author Rieder in astatement .
" The organization is only stable when the ring splay opposite to how the planet orbits the hotshot . "
This correct up is very rarified . Rings and satellite lean to circumvolve in arrangement with their orbital motion so , in the paper availableonlineand shortly to be print in Astronomy & Astrophysics , the researchers intimate a cataclysmic upshot have either the anchor ring or the satellite to start rotating in the opposite way .
Alternative scenario were also investigated to explicate the complex series of occultation the star underwent in 2007 . They toyed with the idea of free - floating objects obscuring the star for 56 daytime , but it seemed a very unlikely explanation .
“ The chance of that is minimal , " continued Rieder . " Also , the speed measure with previous observance may not be correct , but that would be very strange because those measurement are very accurate . "
The squad hopes to further canvas the system and discover out how such an challenging star system might have formed .
