Planetary Rings

Planetary rings are really beautiful features displayed by the outer planets of our solar system. For centuries astronomers thought that these rings were solid features and also believed that Saturn was the only planet to possess these magnificent features. We now know that there are 4 planets that have rings and that the rings are composed of billions of particles. Saturn's rings were first discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610 but he could not tell what they were exactly. In the year 1655 Christian Huygens was the first person to say that the rings were a disc that surrounded Saturn. Saturn has the most extensive ring set out of all of the 4 planets. The main rings around Saturn are made up of pure water and ice. Another amazing fact is that the rings of Saturn have their own atmosphere, separate of the planet itself and the atmosphere is made of oxygen gas (O2) and also Hydrogen gas (H2). The atmospheres are so sparse that it had to somehow be condensed down to the rings. (I will explain how the rings of all planets are formed at the end). The next planet whose rings we discovered was Uranus. This planets rings are not as extensive as Saturn's rings, being that Uranus has only 13 distinct rings. These rings are split into groups: Nine narrow main rings, two dusty rings, and two outer rings. (There may be numerous optically thin rings and even fainter rings between them as well). In comparison, the F ring of Saturn and the Epsilon ring of Uranus are both relatively narrow and dark and guided by a couple of moons. Jupiter's rings or the Jovian ring system was the third ring system to be discovered. The Jovian ring system is very thin and consists of mainly dust. This system has 4 major components: a thick inner torus (3 dimensional point of revolution) of particles known as the "halo ring", a relatively bright, extremely thin main ring, and two wide, thick and faint outer rings or gossamer rings, named for the moons of whose material they are composed of and the moons are Amalthea and Thebe. Neptune is the last planet in our solar system that has rings. The rings were discovered in 1984 by a team of scientists. Neptune's rings consist of five principle rings that even at their greatest densities they are only comparable to the least dense portions of Saturn's main rings such as the C rings. Neptune's rings are named after astronomers that contributed significantly to work on the planet (Click Here: to see the names under the General Properties tab). Neptune also has an unnamed ring that coincides with the orbit of the moon Galatea. The dark substance that Neptune's rings are made out of are organic compounds made from radiation.

Planetary rings are made of rock, ice and other materials, they have Shepard moons, like the unnamed ring of Neptune and its guide Galatea. But how are these rings formed? Well there are three main concepts of ring formation two of which involve the Roche limit. A satellite or Moon, is held together entirely under its own gravity. Once the moon crosses this Roche limit, it will break up due to the host planets tidal forces. You can think of the Roche limit like a calculated distance away from the host planet that breaks up the satellite or moon, once it has passed its limit. (Click Here: Learn more about the Roche limit.)

Anywhere in our solar system where we see beautiful rings around planets make me think, what if earth had rings? If earth had rings they would shine brighter than a full moon at night, they would streak across the sky in brilliance. How would these rings form? Well since the moon is well out of the Roche limit, another way for Earth to obtain rings would be for the moon to be, either partially or fully destroyed in an impact. What is left of the debris that had not escaped into space from high velocity impact, and had not fell down and impacted the Earth, would be caught in Earth's gravity and those particles would collide with each other to create rings over millions of years.

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