Questions tagged [planetary-ring]
Questions about rings of debris that encircle the equatorial regions of some planets.
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How dense are Saturn's rings?
I assume that the A ring is the densest, but I might be wrong. Nevertheless, I failed to find any explicit information over the net about the minimum and maximum of densities for the different rings. ...
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Why do some planets have rings?
Some planets, specifically Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune in our solar system, have planetary rings.
Why do some planets have rings? How are they made and from what? Most importantly, will I ...
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How long do planetary rings last?
I'm surprised that this question hasn't been asked before (here or on Physics), to the best of my knowledge. It's one that I might have asked when I was a bit younger, and one that I think other ...
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Will Saturn's rings become a moon?
Planets form from disks of matter orbiting around a star; some moons form from disks of matter orbiting planets. If this were going to happen around Saturn, approximately how much time would it take?
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Is it possible for planetary rings to be perpendicular (or near perpendicular) to the planet's orbit around the host star?
Is it possible for planetary rings to be perpendicular (or near perpendicular) to the planet's orbit around the host star?
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Do planetary rings have geometric bounds?
Are there any bounds on where a planetary ring can form and maintain orbit relative to the planet?
Do they have to be in a circular equatorial orbit?
Is there a min or max altitude, say with respect ...
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How thick can planetary rings be?
This arose from a comment on Worldbuilding.
We have data from four planets in the Solar System with rings, which doesn't make for a very good sample size. Observations of exoplanets could change that,...
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Do magnetic fields affect planetary rings?
Planetary rings seem to generally form on the ecliptic plane because of the rotation of the planet, but I was wondering what kind of effect the magnetic field of the planet might have on the ring ...
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Can a star have a ring system?
I often hear about planetary ring systems, and even some moons might have them, but how about stars? Can a star also have rings?
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How are the newly discovered Janus/Epimetheus rings different from the other rings of Saturn?
What are the newly discovered ring systems of Saturn, and the circumstances relating to the discovery? Is there something that makes them different from the old well-known rings, like their formation?
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Which Saturn satellite passes closest to Saturn's rings and at what distance?
I was using Stellarium to watch Saturn from its moon Pan and I saw the rings were very close to this moon. Now Saturn's rings extend for a large distance so several moons see them from close. I was ...
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Which star did Uranus occult in 1977 when the planet's rings were discovered?
In 1977, Uranus occulted a star, and the starlight flickered 40 minutes before and after the actual occultation, revealing Uranus' rings.This is common knowledge to astronomers, but what I can't find ...
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Why Only Saturn Has Visible Rings
It may be surprising to know that all four giants in our solar system have rings orbiting around them. Yet only Saturn has a system of rings visible to the naked eye. Why is that? What's so ...
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Can there be elliptical rings around a planet?
The rings of Saturn and Jupiter are circular. Orbits can be elliptical, so can rings be elliptical?
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Why does Saturn have both moons and rings?
From my understanding, a ring can form around a planet when a moon gets too close to its Roche limit, and gets ripped appart by the planet's gravity pull. That makes sense to me, but I don't ...
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What's special about Saturn that it has distinctive rings?
This may overlap with other questions, but I'm asking what is unique about Saturn in location, properties, etc that is has far more pronounced rings? It's between Jupiter and Uranus and Neptune in ...
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Size of Saturn's ring material
How big are the chunks of rock ice that make up Saturn's rings? Are there many objects larger than pebble size?
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Why are some universal entities round and others are flat?
I've been wondering for a while now why some objects in the universe (such as stars, planets, etc.) are round, while others are flat (galaxies, planetary rings and protoplanetary disks).
I know these ...
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How unusual is the solar system?
In Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, the main characters are looking for the long-lost Earth. There are two major features of the solar system that seem to make it unusual among the millions of ...
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What are those blobs in each of the two bright rings of Neptune shown in the new JWST image?
What is this bright blue object taken by the Webb telescope? includes the new JWST infrared image of Neptune and Triton. The disk of Neptune shows interesting features but I'm drawn to Neptunes's ...
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Hypothetically, would we be able to see the moon from Saturn's North Pole?
Hypothetically speaking, if Saturn had a solid surface that we could stand on, would we be able to see our Moon from the North Pole of Saturn? Would the rings of Saturn obstruct the view?
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Do/Can Ringed Stars Exist?
The other night, while playing Elite: Dangerous, I came across a rather strange celestial body - one I never imagined possible.
It was a Brown Dwarf star with a very large ring.
Is something like ...
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Could a cross-ringed planet exist?
My title doesn't do my question justice in explaining, but the kind of satellite system I'm thinking of is two rings on two separate axis, much like (if you've seen it) the film 'Treasure Planet' ...
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Wouldn't the rings of Saturn experience tidal effect?
The "Lord of the Rings" has more than 60 moons, some of which are larger than Mercury. My question is, wouldn't the ring, which is mostly comprised of rocks, experience tidal effect whenever a moon is ...
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Could a star have a Saturn-like ring?
Saturn's rings will never clump together, because they are within the Roche limit. Which makes me wonder if a star could have rings that are kept from clumping together due to tidal forces. Have any ...
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Can Jupiter's rings be seen with the naked eye by an astronaut nearby? How difficult would it be?
Maybe a basic question, apologies.
I understand that there would be different answers depending on how far is "nearby", depending on how inclined our orbit is, and what is our alignment with ...
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Can an asteroid have rings?
I know an asteroid can have moons, but how about rings? Does it also get affected by the Roche limit?
The asteroid Florence has two moons.
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Can Earth have a ring?
Why doesn't the earth have a ring?
If solid material such as dust and moonlets, and common components of satellite systems are brought nearer to the Earth, then what will happen? Will it take the ...
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Can moons exist inside a planet's roche limit?
Saturn's rings are inside its own Roche Limit - the limit beyond which bodies start disintegrating due to the tidal forces of the parent body. But as every rock in the ring can be regarded as a ...
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Are there any planetary ring system other than "Phoebe ring" not aligned to the equatorial plane?
Continuation of: Is it possible for planetary rings to be perpendicular (or near perpendicular) to the planet's orbit around the host star?
The answers discussed about Uranian ring system and how ...
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What stabilizes rings or accretion disks?
We think, more or less, that our Moon was formed from an accretion disk caused by a Mars-sized impactor. Cool.
Tidal forces can break apart a moon, causing rings.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust: the ...
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Rings around a smaller, close-in planet?
Is it possible for a small, close-to-star planet to have a stable ring system--icy or otherwise?
A smaller planet means the rings would have to be closer to the planet, which means the radial shear (...
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A couple of questions about Earth's hypothetical planetary rings
From what little I know of this subject, It should be possible for Earth (Or a planet the size of Earth) to keep a system of Planetary Rings. However, looking around the internet only gives me info ...
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Can planetary rings form as a result of solidifed lava thrown up by volcanoes on the surface of small rocky moons/planets?
I have heard that a moon in our solar system orbiting Saturn possesses geographical features that essentially spit out water and moisture from 'volcanoes' on its surface. The volume of water outputted ...
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Can planetary rings distort the shape of a planet?
I was watching this Kurzgesagt video on what would happen if the moon crashed into the Earth, and it mentioned that at the very end the tidal forces would tear the moon apart and create planetary ...
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Is there, in fact, any close-up photography of Saturn's rings, showing individual pebbles/rocks?
After reading this excellent but difficult answer, https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/a/18407/13071
I've been thinking how difficult it is to get a sense of the distance between and the size of ...
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How do a planet's moons and a planet's rings interact?
I am making a video game which features a planet and its moon. And I thought I would add rings too.
But that got me wondering... how do a planet's moon and a planet's ring influence each other?
Does ...
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What is the difference between a moon and a random chunk in the rings
Jupiter has 79 (known) moons, Saturn 82, Uranus 27 and Neptune 14 (numbers come from Wikipedia). These planets also all have rings. The rings are made up of chunks of rock and ice. There also are ...
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Why do the rings around the Gas Giants get their 'ring' shape?
In our Solar System, all the gas giants have ring systems. However, why do these rings form rings and not a cloud of debris around the planet?
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Recent origin of Saturn's rings
Saturn was formed around billion years ago along with Jupiter. After which it had enough time to form moon which can break into rings.
Then why is it said that Saturn's ring are of recent origin - ...
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Can rings last around planets indefinitely?
Apparently, Saturn is losing its rings (https://weather.com/en-IN/india/space/news/2023-05-04-saturn-is-losing-its-rings-webb-may-tell-us-how-long-they-have-left) However, is there any way or ...
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Could a planet have a massive crater without collapsing due to gravity / other factors?
A severely destroyed planet is a popular trope in media. Here are a few examples from fiction with pictures (spoiler warning).
A crater with a diameter 1/3rd the size of the planet itself:
Earth (...
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Are the radial spokes in Saturn's rings reliably visible via ground-based telescopes
In the mid 1970's, Franklin and O'Meara saw persistent "radial spoke-like features" in the rings of Saturn, that should not have existed due to the differential rotation of the rings. A publication ...
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Difference between "planetary ring" and "circumstellar disk"?
Related: Do/Can Ringed Stars Exist?
Is there any particular difference, in behavior or properties, between a planetary ring system and a circumstellar disk? Or is the only real difference a matter of ...
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What kind of effects can maintain Uranus' rings' eccentricities?
The recent paper Thermal Emission from the Uranian Ring System has been in the news recently. The introduction mentions:
The ε ring, the brightest and most massive of the narrow rings, was shown to ...
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Why are saturn rings so thin?
I wonder why saturn rings are so thin ? Rings A, B and C are approximately just 10 meters thick which is extremely thin compared to the size of Saturn. What are the explanations for that ?
Thanks a ...
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Mass limit of planetary ring
Is there a limit to how massive a planet's ring can be?
If there is, how does it depend on the mass of the planet, presence/absence of moons, distance to the star or other parameters?
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What is the organic material in Saturn's rings?
The phys.org articleSurprising chemical complexity of Saturn's rings changing planet's upper atmosphere about the chemical complexity of Saturn's rings, quotes a member of the INMS (Thomas Cravens) as ...
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Why does our Moon not have rings?
While our Moon is full of craters, one could consider that these events might have been enough to release amounts of fragmented mass into the Moon's orbit sufficient to establish some sort of ring.
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