Why does Saturn have rings?

Question

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?

In: 60

Answer 1

Imagine you start with the debris orbiting randomly. Because the orbits cross, the debris would collide all the time and exchange momentum. Eventually, everything is orbiting on the same plane (the “average” of all planes that stuff originally orbited on).

This is not unique to Saturn’s rings, by the way. All planets orbit the Sun on roughly the same plane, for same reason.