• Question: why does Saturn have a ring? And what is it used for?

    Asked by to Edward, Ian, Mathew, Naomi, sakshisharda on 19 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Ian Stephenson

      Ian Stephenson answered on 19 Jun 2014:

      I don’t think we really know exactly why its got a ring, but the general idea is that dust and rocks which get trapped in orbit around a planet generally form into a moon, but in the case of saturn, some of the debris never formed into a moon, or the moon broke up.

      It’s not “for” anything – it just hangs around and makes Saturn look the coolest of all the planets.

    • Photo: Naomi Osborne

      Naomi Osborne answered on 22 Jun 2014:

      Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune also have rings of dust and rocks, but are much thinner so we don’t see them. These planets are large and pull in more debris from space and are also far away from the sun so icy fragments get pulled in close as well. Why Saturn has more is not really known but may have been because of a moon breaking apart, possibly by an asteroid impact.

      And I agree with Ian – Saturn is definitely the coolest of all the planets!

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