This has never been seen before - a giant
asteroid had a surprise in store for scientists
when they discovered it had Saturn-like rings.
Chariklo - which is also considered to be
a minor planet - is around 250 km wide, which
makes it the smallest known object to have
such rings.
It was previously thought they could only
form around much bigger planets, such as Saturn
or Neptune.
The scientists only noticed the rings when
the asteroid moved in front of a star, casting
a shadow the size of South America - and inspiring
them to take a closer look.
Our work was to map an entire region, in which
this object passes in the sky. Then we determined
it was hiding a particular star, and what
was really surprising is that we detected
the presence of two rings surrounding the
object.
It's not known how the rings formed - but
one theory suggests they're made up of ice,
pebbles and other debris from a massive collision
in space.
