If gravity works by pulling everything to a single point (planets centre), then what’s keeping the rings on their specific axis? Shouldn’t it be an even layer of debris around the planet?
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> Why does Saturn have rings? Shouldn’t it be an even layer of debris around the planet?
They probably started that way, but an even layer of material would all be orbiting in different directions as they would all be “pulled to the same point”. Eventually, things “run into” each other enough that everything ends up moving in the same direction. In an orbit, the same direction means a single plane.
This is the same phenomenon that causes the solar system to form into a plane, and all the planets rotate around the sun in the same direction. In this case, the bodies don’t actually have to run into each other, they can “pull” or “grab” each other with gravity, and the process happens the same way.
[This](https://youtu.be/MTY1Kje0yLg?&t=461) famous experiment shows that process. At the very end of the video, you can see the balls start in different directions, but eventually, the collisions cause all but one direction of rotation to slow down and fall into the gravity well.
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