Why Does Saturn Have A Ring Around It
Camila Farah
Scientists have ideas about why saturn has rings but no one knows for sure.
The rings may have formed when a small moon wandered too close to saturn and broke into pieces but particles may have come from stray comets or asteroids too. What are saturn s rings made of. Or are they made of many particles dancing in formation around the planet. Many people are surprised to learn that saturn isn t the only planet with rings.
Floating out in space the rings of saturn are brilliant and bright and almost seem magical. Saturn s rings are made largely of ice interspersed with dust particles. According to larry esposito a leading planetary astronomer working on nasa s cassini mission to saturn previous models held that saturn s rings originated either from a small moon or a passing. Saturn s second largest moon rhea has been hypothesized to have a tenuous ring system of its own consisting of three narrow bands embedded in a disk of solid particles.
139 140 these putative rings have not been imaged but their existence has been inferred from cassini observations in november 2005 of a depletion of energetic electrons in saturn s magnetosphere near rhea. Saturn is probably one of the top favorites of all of the planets in our solar system. Dusts and gases forms the ring. That means the rocks in saturn s rings are very icy.
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Some are even made entirely of ice like snowballs. Saturn boasts six major ring systems with divisions between them. One of the main reasons it s so popular is due to those mysterious rings. This effect still occurs farther out just not as severe.
Saturn s rings are very bright because snow reflects sunlight strongly. If a moon suddenly appeared in orbit in the ring then the side of the moon nearest the planet would want to orbit faster than the side of the moon farthest and it would get smeared into a ring. The simplest answer as to why saturn has rings and what they are made of is that the planet has accumulated a great deal of dust particles and ice at varying distances from its surface.
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