The study led by Professor Bruno Morgado, from the Valongo Observatory (OV/UFRJ), and published in nature identified an unprecedented phenomenon that shakes a 19th century theory, gaining great repercussions in the Brazilian and foreign press. For the researcher, it is time to “show the cutting-edge science we do in Brazil and at UFRJ”. See report on the discovery at UFRJ connection which brought the finding firsthand.
In Brazil, the discovery made headlines in at least 28 vehicles, such as Folha de S. Paulo, Estadão, the globe O, Look, Era, CNN Brazil, Exam, Band It is Brazil Agency. In the foreign media, at least 26 newspapers gave voice to the finding, such as The New York Times, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Le Monde, National Geographic, forbes, daily mail It is CNN.
“Quaoar was being observed by specialists from the Valongo Observatory in search of clues about the origins of the Solar System. To everyone’s surprise, they identified that the tiny star has a ring – which, in itself, is already considered rare”, highlighted the Estadão.
A Folha de S. Paulo rescued the motivation of the beginning of the studies. “Quaoar is one of the known large objects that reside in the so-called Kuiper belt, where Pluto, the largest of them, is also located. With an estimated 1,110 km in diameter, it is half the size of the famous ‘cousin’. It is also probably a dwarf planet, but the International Astronomical Union [a “Fifa” da astronomia] does not classify it that way, because one of the conditions to receive the name is to have reached hydrostatic equilibrium [traduzindo do cientifiquês, ser aproximadamente esférico]. The scientists’ work began precisely with this objective: to try to determine the shape of Quaoar”, highlighted the newspaper from São Paulo.
“The main point of the discovery is that the existence of the ring puts to test what was understood until now by Astronomy as the Roche Limit, a concept elaborated in the 19th century, which defines the distance that an object can be from the main star in which it is located. orbits without being torn apart,” explained the newspaper The globe.
O The New York Times interviewed Professor Bruno Morgado. The vehicle highlighted the originality of the discovery. “A small icy world far beyond Neptune has a ring like Saturn’s. Surprisingly, the ring is at a distance where simple gravitational calculations suggest there shouldn’t be one. “A possible explanation for Quaoar’s distant ring is the presence of Weywot. The moon may have created gravitational disturbances that prevented ring particles from accumulating on another moon. At the ultra-cold temperatures in the outer solar system, ice particles are also more bouncy and less likely to stick together when they collide.” The New York Times.
already the The Guardian remembered when it was possible to make the discovery. “The detection was made during the so-called occultation event, when a planet passes directly in front of a star, meaning that its sharp silhouette can be observed briefly by Earth-based telescopes,” said the British newspaper.
A forbes added that “astronomers discovered the rings using a camera called HiPERCAM mounted on a telescope in La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain, observing light from a distant star blocked by Quaoar in its orbit around the sun.” The American publication also contextualizes, noting that “the discovery occurs less than a month after astronomers observed another ring system around an icy giant asteroid more than three billion kilometers from Earth using NASA’s James Webb Telescope, bringing the Grand Canyon-sized asteroid’s rings into much clearer view more than 25 years after the asteroid was discovered.”
In addition to UFRJ, the article published in nature was signed by scientists from other institutions, such as the Federal Technological University of Paraná (UTFPR), National Observatory, São Paulo State University (Unesp), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT (United States), Sorbonne University (France), Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (Spain), University of Bern (Switzerland), University of St Andrews (Scotland), University of Stockholm (Sweden), University of Oulu (Finland), University of Sheffield (England), Cadi Ayyad University (Morocco), Observatory of Reedy Creek (Australia) and University of Lieja (Belgium).