Saturn's most notable feature is obviously its massive rings. But there Saturn's rings aren't as special as you think it turns out all of the gas giant have rings. But Saturn's rings are just much bigger. But why are Saturn's rings bigger how do rings form read on and lets find out.
Before we start lets define a planetary ring a planetary ring is a flat disk of dust and ice particles that orbit a planet. All of the gas giants have rings but they are much smaller. Jupiter has the second biggest Uranus the third and Neptune has the least impressive ring system.
Scientists find it very odd that Uranus has a bigger ring system then Neptune since Neptune is actually bigger then Uranus and there for should have a bigger ring system. However this might be attributed to the fact that Neptune has more clumpy ring. But Uranus also rotates differently because it rotates on its side and the rings are parallel to this rotation and are hence on their side as well. So the lesson from this is simply that Uranus cheats.
Scientists don't really know how a planetary ring forms but one of the theories has to do with the Roche limit. The Roche limit is kinda hard to explain without a graph but for the purpose of simplicity small objects that have a low density will break up as they come closer to the sun. They will then turn into dust which could then be intercepted and captured by the gravity of the gas giants who are further away from the sun. This is why some people think that maybe even Pluto has a ring or two since if this was true then being a gas giant would not be necessary.
It is an enigma that Saturn's rings are so massive compared to Jupiter's despite Saturn's lesser gravity. However if the Roche limit is the cause of the rings then maybe the simple fact that Saturn is further away from the sun could be a factor. However there is also another factor why. Maybe the fact that Jupiter has such a large gravity is the reason why it has a smaller ring system. Over time sections of the rings begin to condense and form into moons at which point they are drawn in by the gravity of the planet and are destroyed (or they become shepherd moons but I will get to that in a little while). However Saturn might have achieved a balancing act being able to hold the ring without destroying it.
The shepherd moons are well named as its their job to keep the edges of the ring defined. They orbit the outer rim of the rings and any dust particles that want to get out of the ring first have to go through the shepherd moons. Which either rocket the dust out quickly send them back into the rings or captures them.
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