Using powerful optics, they have found a much larger planet-like body, J1407b, with rings 200 times the size of Saturn’s, U.S. and Dutch astronomers said.
It lies some 400 light-years away from Earth.
For decades, scientists have believed that many moons around large planets formed out of such ring systems. But this is the first one astronomers have observed aside from Saturn’s, they said.
It was discovered in 2012, but a detailed analysis of its data was recently completed and published.
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Brown dwarfs are hot but don’t burst into nuclear fusion the way stars do, so they don’t give off light.
The scientists are calling on amateur astronomers to keep an eye on star J1407 in hopes they may observe the rings eclipsing it again and report the results to the American Association of Variable Star Observers, which collects astronomical data on “stars that change in brightness.”
And astronomers will also search for more such ringed systems.
