• Question: Do you guys know why does Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Saturn have rings??

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      Asked by anon-281857 on 8 Mar 2021.
      • Photo: Jesko Koehnke

        Jesko Koehnke answered on 8 Mar 2021:

        Planets only have rings if something perpetually produces the stuff that the rings are made of. As far as I know it is volcanic eruptions on the moons of planets like Saturn that produce the debris which makes up the rings.

      • Photo: Marcel Jaspars

        Marcel Jaspars answered on 9 Mar 2021:

        The person who figured out how the rings on saturn stay stable was James Clerk Maxwell – a famours Scottish Scientist from the 19th Century (also known as the man who changed the world) – see https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Extras/Maxwell_Saturn/

        Most remarkably he also worked out many other things in chemistry and physics, but most important the theory of electromagnetic radiation (light, radiowaves etc) that are needed to run all of our telecommunications today

      • Photo: Martin McCoustra

        Martin McCoustra answered on 9 Mar 2021:

        The rings of the outer planets are basically debris left over from icy moons that didn’t form as the gravitational pull of the large planets tends to pull them apart to form debris rings.

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