I would have thought all of the rings would be at different rotations around the planet, but they all bunch up together. Is that along Saturn’s equator? If so, why?
In: Physics
Most of the material in orbit around a planet formed from the same stuff as the planet itself, so it has a common angular momentum.
Imagine stuff moving in all sorts of orbits, but stuff that has intersecting orbits at big angles will hit each other over time at high speed and blast away. But stuff that’s close to the most common orbit will hit each other at slower speeds, and be more likely to just stick together and keep similar orbits.
So you get moons in these common planes close to the equators of planets.
You get rings in something called a Roche Orbit where the gravity of the planet pulls things apart while still keeping it in a common orbit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roche_limit
Latest Answers