Why does Saturn have rings?

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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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Anonymous 0 Comments

Pretty much every astral body in what is known as a stable orbit, has a velocity perpendicular to the largest nearby gravitational pull to keep its distance more or less consistent (sometimes with a periodic cycle/less simple orbit, but still).

Think of the international space station–it is constantly being pulled back down to earth by gravity, but it remains at about the same height because it is travelling sufficiently fast that the earth essentially curves *away* underneath it at the same rate it is being pulled back down.

Saturn’s rings are essentially, dust and rocks and the like with a similar relationship. I believe the “ring” form has to do with a long-timeframe of a debris/dust cloud essentially condensing around a plane of highest mass/rotation. Stuff like that is rarely uniform, and small differences of attractive force/grouping up can cause condensation like that into a rough plane over time. Similar to how most of our solar system also has a rough planar layout (with some variation).

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