What makes rings around planets

In visible light, the rings of Uranus, Neptune, and Jupiter are dark and indistinct, but they shine more clearly in infrared light. They are active, dynamic structures that undergo daily temperature shifts, seasons, and even give birth to moons. As Saturn and its rings travel around the Sun, the tilt of the rings causes seasonal changes.

These ring particles stick to each other at different rates depending on how warm or cold they are, coalescing into small objects that then fall apart again when conditions change. Combined, Cassini and Webb will allow us to capture an entire Saturnian year. It remains to be seen whether the less dense rings around planets like Neptune, Uranus, and Jupiter perform a similar function. Neptune has dark rings made of methane and ammonia ice.

Webb will observe how the rings change around their planets, and look for small moons, new rings, and other material around the giant planets. The solar system is about 4. That means that the rings formed when the solar system was still forming, about 4. While the rings themselves are thought to be as old as the solar system, the particles that make up the rings are very young.

Older particles have been covered by interplanetary dust, leaving them less reflective. The majority of the particles are bright, which means they haven't had time to collect dust. This suggests the ring particles get recycled somehow. Some scientists believe that the particles coalesce into moons and repeatedly break up again.

The Cassini spacecraft recently discovered that Enceladus, one of Saturn's medium-sized moons, is providing new material to Saturn's E-ring. The E-ring is the largest planetary ring in the solar system, and seems to be continually replenished by geologic activity on Enceladus. Dust particles that are expelled fast enough from vents on the south polar region of Enceladus are ejected out of the gravitational pull of Enceladus, and added to the material in the growing E-ring.

Cassini has also sent back information suggesting that material blasted off Enceladus from micrometeorites hitting its surface also helps to replenish the E-ring.

Other theories about the formation of the jovian ring systems include the possibility of a moon coming too close to the planet and breaking apart. Some of the particles could just be dust, and bits of rock and ice that were once floating around the solar system and were captured by the giant planets.

Scientists are still working on a definite answer to these questions. Regardless of where they came from, they sure are beautiful. Related Lessons: Rings and Things. This majestic image of Saturn was taken by the Cassini spacecraft as it passed through the shadow of the giant planet.

The rings are so reflective, they appear to light up the night side of the planet. Instead, it spread out into the ring systems we see today. What we do know is that the rings around the various planets are all slightly different from one another, but they all share some characteristics too.

First, they are all much wider than they are thick. The rings of Saturn, for example, are about ,km wide stretching away from the planet but only metres thick. The other thing that all rings systems share is that they are all made of small particles of ice and rock. The smallest of these particles are no bigger than dust grains, while the largest of the particles are about 20 metres in diameter — about the size of a school hall.

All the rings around the planets also contain gaps that are sometimes many kilometres wide and at first nobody could figure out why. We later learned that the gaps were caused by small moons that had gobbled up all the material in that particular part of the ring system. The biggest difference between the rings of Saturn and the other gas giant planets is that the particles that make up the rings of Saturn are very good at reflecting the light from the sun back towards the Earth. That means they appear to be very bright, which is why we can see the rings from Earth using a normal telescope.

The particles that make up the rings of Uranus and Neptune contain elements that were darkened by the sun.