Questions tagged [planetary-rings]
For questions about rings and their effects on the world and its people.
69
questions
6
votes
1
answer
868
views
Could humanoid life survive the violent formation of a planetary ring system?
The deepest mythological archetypes in my Earth-like world hint at a wondrous and terrible disaster in the ancient past. ~10 tya a celestial body (perhaps a small, second moon, or a wandering asteroid,...
- 63
2
votes
1
answer
100
views
Tides on an Inhabitable planet with rings
I've occasionally pondered the notion of an inhabited planet similar to Earth in terms of size, gravity, atmosphere etc., but with rings circling around it an a similar manner to Saturn. One question- ...
- 2,823
1
vote
0
answers
68
views
What would be the weather inside the rings' shadow of a planet with 0 tilt axis? [closed]
The premise
· super Earth (the super giant part can be nixed if impossible)
· rings system made of silicate, size is still to be determined (but the wider, the better)
· non tilted axis
· there are ...
- 11
3
votes
1
answer
219
views
How stable would partial planetary rings be on Lagrange points?
Context
There's a comparison to what I'm talking about on a larger scale: Jupiter's got its Trojans and Greeks, and Earth does have them too. Those are more or less loose and sparse groups of ...
- 400
1
vote
1
answer
113
views
Could a terrestrial planet have a stable orbit of rings? [duplicate]
Planet Phileas, similar in size to Earth. Fourth star in a binary star system with a p-type orbit.
Changes may be necessary and I'm open to constructive criticism. This question includes two parts. ...
- 335
6
votes
2
answers
536
views
Can a habitable planet have rings? [duplicate]
So, quite simply, is it possible for a planet in the habitable zone of its sun to possess rings like a gas giant? Naturally they would not be made of ice, but if this planet had a small moon which ...
- 8,329
3
votes
1
answer
105
views
Debris from a ringed planet, and believability
I am writing a fantasy book, so while I am not too concerned with being completely scientifically accurate, I would at least like for aspects of my world to feel believable, so as to not take the ...
- 31
1
vote
1
answer
126
views
could an equator-round elevator be possible for passing through rings of a planet to reach the moons?
I am developing a terrestrial, habitable planet with rings about the width of Uranus' rings. Not extremely thick, but still noticeable.
I have heard that rings on planets would cause an inhabitable ...
- 335
2
votes
1
answer
136
views
What are the Celestial observations and mythology on a ringed planet? [closed]
I'm building a ringed world with it's rings composed of low albedo material to try and dampen the impact the rings have during night time (that is, trying so not every single night that the rings are ...
- 1,273
3
votes
3
answers
236
views
How should planetary rings be to cause permanent and heavy thunderstorms on the full equatorial area of the planet?
The world in question is an Earth-like planet, with, for plot reasons, a permanently ongoing thunderstorm all over its equatorial line, in such way that's impossible to come across before a 1920-50-...
- 103
2
votes
0
answers
117
views
What would an Earth-like planet with a mostly stable ring be like? [closed]
I recently watched a video talking about what would happen if our moon was on a collision course with the Earth and they described it being ripped apart by Earth's gravity. This made me want to re-...
- 3,034
7
votes
2
answers
221
views
Verifying Habitability/ Feasibility of my Conworld
Right, lets try this again.
I'm making a planet for a book I'm writing. I want to know if the planet I outline here is scientifically probable, able to support life, and what the climate would ...
- 151
0
votes
2
answers
132
views
Would my gas giant have rings?
The gas giant in question is about 3 times the mass of jupiter with a density of 3.58 grams per cubic centimeter. It formed naturally beyond the system's forstline and then migrated into the habitable ...
- 1,218
1
vote
2
answers
143
views
How advanced would a civilisation need to be to notice one of their system's planets is tidally locked?
Picture a tidally locked planet that is also the closest planet to the star (~0,17 AU from a star with a luminosity of ~1,5 times that of the Sun).
The side of the planet that faces the star would ...
- 1,273
8
votes
3
answers
322
views
Habitability of a Low Axial Tilt Planet with a Planetary Ring
So, I'm creating a world for a science fantasy setting. It has magic and such, but since it's mainly taboo to use it, I want the world's climate to be based on hard scientific facts.
My world has an ...
- 151
6
votes
2
answers
349
views
Age of sail navigation tools for a planet with a ring
Alright so I have a planet where the locals are about seventeenth century level of technology, meaning sailing ships and single shot black powder weapons are the standard and there is plenty of ocean ...
- 2,323
7
votes
3
answers
469
views
What's the minimum possible size for a planet to have rings?
How small can a planet with rings be? It doesn't have to be inhabitable, but it must be a planet (not a dwarf planet).
- 778
1
vote
2
answers
307
views
How Bright Would Super Saturn's Rings Be in Our Sky?
It's not that long ago that we have found the "exoplanet" J1407b, notable for having a ring system 200 times the size of Saturn's. I airquote that term because, at a mass ten to forty times ...
- 14.4k
8
votes
1
answer
233
views
How long would it take for a earth-based ring to break up given solar and lunar gravitational forces?
In my world-building project, a decades long orbital conflict has resulted in the trashing of Earth's orbit with massive amounts of debris, shipwrecks, and space junk. However, after an anomalous ...
4
votes
2
answers
315
views
Are Saturn's rings a safe place for adolescent space-hoppers?
Are Saturn's rings a safe place for adolescent space-hoppers?
As you know, space-hopper toys are based on the real-life creature. These are roughly balloon shaped and have two "horns".
The ...
- 49.3k
5
votes
2
answers
267
views
Could this uniquely shaped planet exist?
Now, I know that planets can’t be disc-shaped. However, if a relatively small planet had a very strong magnetical pull, could it have a ring system that could make the planet from afar seem disc-...
- 53
2
votes
1
answer
103
views
How changing planetary ring affects the migration of terrestrial fauna?
Imagine a gas giant as massive as Jupiter has a enormous planetary ring which will expand and contract throughout its orbit around a main sequence star.
Then there is a moon as massive as Mars and ...
- 46.4k
0
votes
2
answers
226
views
How to make a planet with a chunk missing from it? [closed]
In the forgotten mists of time a Great War was fought. During that war the planet Kutok had a massive gouge (averaging 1,000 miles across and 4,000ft deep) and extending North from the polar cap down ...
- 11
11
votes
6
answers
3k
views
What is a good reason not to mine a planetary ring?
Most planetary rings are rich in water in the form of ice, especially now we are running low on freshwater reserves on Earth. Imagine someone discovered a huge chunk of meteorite consisting of a ...
- 46.4k
4
votes
1
answer
246
views
Are elliptical rings feasible?
Around a rocky planet or small gas giant, could there be a system of rings that follow an elliptical orbit? I have used a gravity simulator (this one) to test it, but the way it handles its particles ...
- 2,536
2
votes
2
answers
189
views
Can adding mass to a ringed planet cause a huge chain reaction?
I've been wondering about this for a while. Here is the research I've done so far that lead me to ask this question:
A planetary ring system is most often formed by the breakup of objects within the ...
- 6,232
3
votes
1
answer
78
views
Forming a dust ring around asteroid Ceres
Is it possible, due to asteroid mining activities, for a space-fairing civilization to produce a dust ring around a very large asteroid (Ceres)?
In my world, there is a lot of ore processing being ...
- 6,076
7
votes
3
answers
461
views
Implications of cigar-shaped bodies having rings?
In my Conworld's system, There is a porous asteroid large enough to be a dwarf planet (but it's mass is too small to pull it into a spherical shape) that has rings. How they got there, nobody knows. ...
- 2,536
13
votes
1
answer
1k
views
How to explain planetary rings pulsating?
A spacecraft enters an unnamed system and spotted a gas giant with a pulsating planetary ring, it glows bright intermittently. What natural phenomenon could be responsible for such brilliant display? ...
- 46.4k
8
votes
1
answer
188
views
Could a Moon have its own "Rings", like Saturn's, without the Host Planet having them? [duplicate]
I'm currently fleshing out a sci-fi universe and always looking for fun new locales to populate it with, and I saw this phenomenon in a video game I've been playing recently, and it made me curious... ...
- 913
3
votes
2
answers
627
views
How stable would a ring be around a tidally locked planet?
So I am working on my species which I requested help with a few days ago. They are large salamander like creatures that need large bodies of water to survive and the planet they live on has about 80-...
- 1,596
8
votes
4
answers
3k
views
Rings made out of water? [duplicate]
There have been numerous questions on this site about moons being composed entirely of water. However, is it possible for a planet to have rings made out of water?
I think that the ring would ...
- 1,200
4
votes
2
answers
233
views
Compass on a Ringed, Earth-like Planet
Is it necessarily a given that a compass (as they magnetically function on Earth) could be made to function similarly on an alternate, Earth-like, ringed planet?
Another way of asking: is it feasible ...
- 339
9
votes
3
answers
488
views
How to navigate a ringed planet at night?
I'm working on a story set in an Earth-like world but with rings (say, proportionately similar to Saturn's). I'm trying to get a solid handle on how these rings would affect the sky. For the ...
- 339
3
votes
2
answers
264
views
Can a planet with chaotic rotation have more than one ring rotating in differents axis? [duplicate]
Let's say that planet earth have a big explosion . An explosion generated in earth big enough to change the planet shape. Making earth having a chaotic rotation like Hyperion leaving water and rocks ...
- 131
2
votes
1
answer
149
views
weather after the earth gets flooded
tl;dr : the earth has been gradually flooded, over the course of a few hundred years. Also, there are now large lumps or ice raining out of the sky (not very often), causing massive tsunamis.
I have ...
- 2,854
9
votes
3
answers
665
views
Ringed Planet: The shadow's effect on fauna
I am writing a fantasy novel centered on an Earth-like planet with icy rings like Saturn. This question deals with certain effects of having such a ring system. Assume the planet is Earth, the rings ...
0
votes
1
answer
179
views
Consequences of dark planetary rings?
I am aware of the possible consequences having a planetary ring may cause on a planet, but since I want my nights to be dark and not giant-reflective-curve-in-the-sky bright I've decided to make the ...
- 1,273
3
votes
1
answer
188
views
Consequences of a two-mooned system losing the one closest to the planet?
I was thinking of adding rings to my planet and I wanted to give them a proper origin, so I thought about getting rid of the moon closest to the planet since I would still have one and it could make ...
- 1,273
6
votes
4
answers
1k
views
Is a ring planet possible?
No planet in the center, just a large O shape made up of large chunks of rock that in and of itself itself orbits a sun, as if it were a planet (as distinct from a ringworld). I know most of the time, ...
- 449
2
votes
1
answer
192
views
What happens if a small moon is held within a planet's Roche Limit?
For story reasons, I need my mages to convert a moon on a collision course with their planet into a ring around the planet. The only thing they can do is hold the moon still. They can't do so ...
1
vote
1
answer
263
views
What are the minimum dimensions for planetary rings to be as visible as the moon in our night sky?
What are the minimum dimensions (length, width, height, etc.) for rings to at least be as significant (as in brightness/visibility) in the night sky as our moon?
Since there are so many variables ...
- 2,890
3
votes
0
answers
146
views
Ringed planet: Reality check on ring-shadow visuals [duplicate]
This is one of a collection of questions about a ringed planet I am considering using as the setting for a fantasy novel. I would like the ringed planet to be as scientifically accurate as possible, ...
11
votes
4
answers
1k
views
How can I tell what my ringed planet will look like from the surface?
I'm considering writing a fantasy novel which takes place on a world with a ring. This ring is a very important part of the story, and I therefore want to be as accurate as possible in describing what ...
2
votes
2
answers
218
views
Reality Check - Collision of a Moon prevented by turning it into a ring
In my current fantasy story, I have an earth-like planet with one large difference: it has a planetary ring. I would like this ring to be large and visible. I've been using Saturn's rings as a ...
8
votes
1
answer
273
views
Effects of Rings - Debris?
I've been thinking about writing a fantasy novel set on an earth-like world with Saturn-like rings. I've been doing some research here by looking up questions about worlds with rings, of which there ...
2
votes
3
answers
322
views
A world with two moons and a ring [closed]
Okay, first of all, the world I'm building is primarily fantasy-based, which means there is magic around; but for all intents and purposes its only use will be to solve problems faced by the creatures ...
- 23
11
votes
4
answers
372
views
Could a gas giant's moon have stable rings?
The planet orbits a supermassive gas giant, almost double the size of Jupiter. But the planet orbiting it is also supposed to have rather large rings in my story.
Question: Is it possible for a moon ...
- 1,032
2
votes
1
answer
271
views
Could A Torus World Have Rings?
Towards the end of this article (https://io9.gizmodo.com/what-would-the-earth-be-like-if-it-was-the-shape-of-a-d-1515700296) there is mention of the different kinds of orbits the moon of a Torus world ...
- 2,922
2
votes
1
answer
427
views
What If Earth Had an Equatorial Ridge
Saturnian moons Iapetus, Atlas, and Pan all have equatorial ridges. There's a few explanations as to why, but the theory behind why Iapetus has one is what intrigues me. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/...
- 2,922