CLOUDS, BELTS AND BANDS

From the biggest to the smallest, how the Solar System’s rings compare

Öpik-Oort Cloud

Radius: 200,000AU Width: 150,000AU Discovered by: Ernst Öpik, Jan Hendrik Oort (theorised)

Hills Cloud

Radius: 30,000AU Width: 28,500AU Discovered by: JG Hills

Scattered Disc

Radius: 100AU Width: 50AU Discovered by: David C Jewitt, Jane Luu (fist object)

Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt

Radius: 55AU Width: 30AU Discovered by: David C Jewitt, Jane Luu

Main asteroid belt

Radius: 3.2AU Width: 1AU Discovered by: Giuseppe Piazzi (who discovered Ceres, the first observed object within the belt)

Rings of Saturn

Main rings: Radius: 480,000km (outermost) Width: 410,000km (inner to outer) Discovered by: Christiaan Huygens

Phoebe dust ring:

Radius: 12,500,000km Width: 4,766,000km Discovered by: Anne J Verbiscer, Michael F Skrutskie, Douglas P Hamilton

Rings of Jupiter

Radius: 226,000km (outermost) Width: 134,000km (inner to outer) Discovered by: Voyager 1

Rings of Neptune

Radius: 62,900km (outermost) Width: 22,000km (inner to outer) Discovered by: Voyager 2

Rings of Uranus

Radius: 51,150km (outermost) Width: 9,300km (inner to outer) Discovered by: James L Elliot, Edward W Dunham, Jessica Mink

Rings of Haumea

Radius: 2,287km Width: 70km Discovered by: 10 central European observatories

Rings of 10199 Chariklo

Radius: 410km (outermost) Width: 20km (inner to outer) Discovered by: 10 telescopes in Argentina, Brazil and Chile

Rings of 95P/Chiron

Radius: 320km (outermost) Width: 20km (inner to outer) Discovered by: Amanda Bosh, Jessica Ruprecht, Michael Person, Amanda Gulbis