this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2024
607 points (99.7% liked)
196
15718 readers
3198 users here now
Be sure to follow the rule before you head out.
Rule: You must post before you leave.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Yeah, a planet that's just like Earth but with a ring system would be dope af
Though maybe it's impossible to have rings and a cool bigass moon because gravity or something? Physicists, help a homie out.
Not a scientist but I imagine 1 moon or more would more or less attract all the matter that would otherwise become a ring?
Saturn has 146 moons and the largest, Titan, is 50% larger than ours, but also farther away from the planet.
I legit forgot Saturn existed there, I shouldn't try to brain before lunch.
Saturn's rings are quite temporary on the time scale that planets exist at. They might only have been formed in a collision between moons 100 million years ago, and will most likely disappear in some 100 million years. This is a very brief period compared to the age of the planet.
So rings are likely quite an unstable formation, large moon or not, and we're lucky to have Saturn nearby right now. It is theorized that Earth used to have two moons that collided to form the current one and presumably also rings of debris that have since disappeared.
Rings at a very basic level tend to be moons that could be, or could have been, if they were higher in orbit such that gravity wouldn't tear the moon apart. They can also be from moons or even planets colliding, the debris in the aftermath forming the rings, which if not too low in orbit, could reform into a moon as well, which seems likely to be how our own moon formed.
You are not alone to consider that
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
You are not alone to consider that
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.