The most stable place for rings is around a planet's equator, so the appearance of the rings would vary by latitude. Given how wars on Earth have stemmed from opposing views of religious doctrine, one might wonder what might have happened as ancient people started roaming the planet and seeing the rings change in appearance. They would still be bright enough to see at night. Join us as we imagine a world where the Earth has rings! These cosmic landmarks would be visible both day and night. Some say that it is a planet that orbits around a other star. With millions of ice and rock particles orbiting around our planet, the night sky would be awash with sparkling lights, illuminating the darkness with a dazzling display of brilliance. My day job is web related and that might carry over to my answer below. An impact on the Earth itself, if it were big enough, could create rings (the impact that formed the Moon billions of years ago may have done just that). Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this HowStuffWorks.com article: 2015 HowStuffWorks, a division of Infospace LLC. Generating X ids on Y offline machines in a short time period without collision. Ithinkso, since the Moon is easily visible during the day. Steady streams of space dust circling the gas giant planet, Saturn's rings have intrigued scientists, astronomers and philosophers for centuries. It has to do with the direction of gravity (radially inward) and the direction of the centrifugal force (outward, but parallel to the equator and not radially away!! Rings are made of metal and are often used to signal events like weddings or funerals. The rings would probably reflect so much sunlight that the planet would never fully plunge into darkness, but remain in a gentle twilight even in the depth of night. I wouldn't want to guess how much shorter, but possibly an order of magnitude or two shorter, maybe more. A small moon could get hit by an asteroid or comet, shattering it. Saturn's Rings are amazing to behold. The rings would mostly likely form parallel to Earth's equator and be visible in the sky from an east to west orientation. As Phobos gets closer to Mars over time, it will likely get torn into a ring again, over the course of millions of years. I rigged the camera, rings and Earth in Maya, placing the camera more-or-less where I indented the viewer to be (New Hampshire, Los Angeles, etc. You will die if you eat an ice cream cone. But as he admits, these pictures may not be an exact rendition of what a ring system would like to an Earth-bound observer. In that study, the authors supposed the existence of a thin system of rings -- perhaps of similar opacity to Saturn's B-ring -- may have caused past climatic changes on the Earth. The . In case you wonder: Yes, the ISS does not have an orbit around the equator. During the summer in the Northern Hemisphere and the winter in the Southern Hemisphere, the rings would cast their shadows on the Southern Hemisphere, and vice versa. Saturn's rings have an estimated local thickness of as little as 10 metres and as much as 1 kilometer, so they are, It wouldn't be phys.se if things weren't scrutinised to within an inch (or a pixel?) As celestial landmarks that never change their position in the sky, the rings would almost certainly play a key role in mythologies. Im sure wed figure out some way to launch rockets anyway giant absorbing puffy shields around rockets, maybe but that would come with its own cost of high mass, which makes getting to orbit that much harder. Would they interfere with airplanes? Any rings Earth attains will not be as good as Saturn's most likely. If the Earth, and Saturn) were perfect spheres, then the axis of the ring could be at any angle. For Saturn it is mostly ice with some rock sprinkled here and there. Why Are There Only 3 Moons In The Solar System. So how would Earth acquire a ring? Some say it is made of wax and that it is only visible in the morning or at night. For northern hemisphere astronomers, the rings would be darker (on the shadowed shdowed side) during the winter, so light reflecting from the sun wouldnt outshine the stars. How would this affect life on Earth? What the sky might look like if Earth had rings like Saturn, from the perspective of the Arctic Circle. clearing a gap in the rings would be a, affect space travel! Nov. 20, 2009. The rings might potentially serve as extraordinary navigational aids. 22 June 2015. Extraterrestrial Planetary Sky Color: does it have to be blue? MathJax reference. Classically spoken, the astronauts in orbit (on ISS or Space Shuttle) are weightless because the gravity of earth and the centrifugal force of their orbital trajectory are equal on magnitude and thus cancel each other (GR explains this a little different, but thats not important). Mega_ErRk 4 yr. ago. In such a configuration, particles are pulled into the plane of the equator. The answer with the actual physics is buried below the answer with pretty pictures. Since it is closer to the Sun Earth would have rocky rings rather than icy rings but perhaps the the same fraction would be blocked. For starters, it is widely believed that at one time, Earth had a ring system of sorts, which was the result of a cataclysmic impact. In fact, in one of the images, I actually moved the Moon out to the right of where it actually was to simulate a more southerly view.. What Was The First Mission To Land Astronauts On The Moon, What Are The Relative Positions Of The Sun Earth And Moon During A Neap Tide, Can You See The Far Side Of The Moon From Earth, How Long Does One Complete Rotation Of The Earth Take, How Often Does The Sun Move Across The Sky, What Was The Space Race And Why Was It A Race, What Can Companies Do To Help The Environment, Can I Restore A Deleted File From The Recycle Bin, Why Is My Garbage Disposal Not Working No Sound, What Is The Most Recyclable Packaging Material, What Are The Financial Disadvantages Of Upcycling. 4 Answers. Just as the moon currently does, the rings would reflect sunlight back to Earth at night and appear to glow in the night sky. Moreover, depending on the latitude and the season, the path of the sun may cross behind the rings. According to the generally accepted giant impactor hypothesis , a planet named Theia collided with Earth in the distant past. One reason is that the gravity of one side of the ring would partially cancel the attraction of the other side. , but Saturn is 1.4 billion kilometers (850 million miles) from the Sun, where things are cold. Euclid space telescope launches this week. Well if we increase the amount of orbital debris the stuff might gravitationally form a ring around the Earth . At least, the moon disapear one week per mounth. If the Earthrings were made of rock they might last a longer time. Also, the rings would be located in the very worst possible place: right over the Earths equator. Atkinson, Nancy. Clearly, we all wonder what our planet would look like if it were a little less Earth-like! ), but lets assume that small pebbles and such could last long enough to give Earth a ring system. Yes, the rings would ultimately end up hovering above the equator (as defined by a planet's rotation). The rings would center like on Saturn because the rings like to be on the same plane as the planet itself. Is the difference between additive groups and multiplicative groups just a matter of notation? But I think we can all agree, the idea of a ring system around Earth (and some artistic renderings of what it would look like) makes from some pretty nice viewing! Sure! Get unlimited access for as low as $1.99/month. There is one critical assumption to this. Answer (1 of 2): Saturn's rings have about the same mass as the moon Mimas, so you might think so. I wouldnt take this as gospel (I wouldnt takeanythingas gospel); instead think of it as idle brain stimulation. An impact on the Earth itself, if it were big enough, could create rings (the impact that formed the Moon billions of years ago may have done just that). And has this also an effect on our satellites that they tend to move towards the equater? So the Earthrings would be incredible, and lovely, and ethereal, but they would come at a terrible cost: astronomy and space travel. 25. You gave a correct but tentative and partial physics explanation in the comments (co-formation implies co-rotation), but omitted the effect of anisotropcity of the planet which would affect rings formed later. That's because the scale that measures your weight, and the ground under it are all suffering the same tidal effect than you, so the force your mass put on the scale is unaffected by the presence of the moon. NASA. In the other (above), we see how a section of the rings has been obscured by the Earths shadow. If Earth had rings? - Physics Stack Exchange Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience. The end point dust is found to gather around the equator. Its safe to assume the rings would be obvious at night then, too. How could the Intel 4004 address 640 bytes if it was only 4-bit? I doubt you'll find a good estimate, but if you are interested in this subject I'd suggest search for "stability of ring systems" on the web and some papers ought to crop up. What conjunctive function does "ruat caelum" have in "Fiat justitia, ruat caelum"? The rings as shown in the video also intersect the Van Allen radiation belts created by our magnetic field. It would all depend on your latitude and which direction you were facing. Saturns rings are made of ice, but Saturn is 1.4 billion kilometers (850 million miles) from the Sun, where things are cold. iO9. Among other things, our satellites in geosynchronous orbit around Earth could be affected (assuming the rings are situated on Earth's equator). Sunlight seen through them would be reddened if the rings were dusty, just like a sunset looks very red if there is haze and junk in the air. "I could imagine all sorts of mythologies built around that.". By clicking Accept all cookies, you agree Stack Exchange can store cookies on your device and disclose information in accordance with our Cookie Policy. Shepherd moons could trek around Earth along predictable orbits, like moving hands on a clock. Then its solar winds will send the vaporized ice into the vacuum of space itself. Why does the ring form around the equator as opposed to another axis. So the reason for rings is the same reason as for accretion disks . Earth may have had a ring just after its formation. Previous work found that Mars' moon Phobos might once have existed as rings around the Red Planet. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. Other broad gaps in the rings are from other moon resonances, while some of the narrow ones are from small moons in the gaps gravitationally clearing out nearby ring particles. One might wonder how they might support travel, exploration, trade, migration and invasion. Transient non-equatorial orbits, however, are of course possible (as they are with launched artificial satellites). In an article published by ex-NASA astronomer Dr. John A. O'Keefe in Nature magazine back in 1980, he hypothesized that the Earth once had a Saturn-like ring that could explain many of the events during past Earth ages. A lot of astronomical (and no doubt spy) satellites are in polar orbits, but again you wouldnt want them plunging through the rings twice each orbit. Had it been outside of Earths Roche Limit, this material would have not been able to come together and would therefore have remained as a disc. Why did CJ Roberts apply the Fourteenth Amendment to Harvard, a private school? Anything that might change if earth had rings? New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. Would Earthrings look like they did in that video? 1.8M views 7 years ago. And as you can see from the photos, the end result is rather breathtaking and inspiring. Thanks to the interwebs and pictureshops, we have some lovely renditions of what it might look like. T0R0YD), who used 3DS Max to show how the rings would appear in the sky from different latitudes on Earth. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, Not the answer you're looking for? Its hard enough to observe when the Moon is out; imagine a sky filled with rings! Is the executive branch obligated to enforce the Supreme Court's decision on affirmative action? Solution 1 Great question. Debris from OceanGate sub found 1,600 feet from Titanic after And back in 2009, information provided by NASAs Cassini space probe led to a number of animators producing videos of what Earth would look like with rings. Stack Exchange network consists of 182 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. In a paper published by Nature in 1980, John O'Keefe of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center speculated that Earth may have had a ring system similar to Saturn's for a brief time period (DOI: 10. . The presence of the rings could strongly decrease the amount of solar radiation reaching the tropics, therefore it could change the whole global atmospheric circulation pattern, maybe the Hadley cell wouldn't form as we know it, changing the climates worldwide. rev2023.7.3.43523. I wonder how legends and myths would be changed on such an Earth? Why did CJ Roberts apply the Fourteenth Amendment to Harvard, a private school? And the rings might very well entice people to wander the world. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. Shall I mention I'm a heavy user of the product at the company I'm at applying at and making an income from it? For starters, it is widely believed that at one time, Earth had a ring system of sorts, which was the result of a cataclysmic impact. (April 15, 2015) http://io9.com/if-earth-had-a-ring-like-saturn-508750253. So while Earth, in some alternate reality, could have had a ring system, we would have paid for it by never having the Moon. If Theia did collide with Earth, would it have produced rings? But, what would happen if Earth had rings? Drilling Deep: How Far Have We Gone Under Earth's Crust? They surmise the ring appeared early in the formation of Earth's moon. Looking for advice repairing granite stair tiles. Depending on the placement of the rings, satellites and spacecraft could, in principle, orbit underneath them. Are throat strikes much more dangerous than other acts of violence (that are legal in say MMA/UFC)? Regarding to your second question, for all the above, I doubt it would change significantly the thickness of the atmosphere. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. Why the Moon does not change its orbit from Earth to an another planet? Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, and our products. Sadly, none of the terrestrial planets (i.e. A Danish astronomer stated in Science Frontiers (Issue #76, Jul-Aug. 1991) that "in the past, the Earth had a ring system just like Saturn, Uranus and Neptune." If Saturn's rings cannot coalesce into a moon because of tidal forces, then how are shepherd moons able to exist? The prevailing explanation for the moon's origin is that it resulted from the collision of two protoplanets, or embryonic worlds. Will the Earth ever get a ring? - Atom Particles Depending on the time of day, the season and the latitude the viewer is located, Earth's shadow might fall on the rings. Things You Should Know Source: realclearscience If Earth had rings like Saturn's, our planet would be a truly breathtaking sight. Made almost completely of bits and chunks of ice and spanning thousands of miles wide, Saturn's rings are its most spellbinding feature; they have mesmerized humans ever since Galileo discovered them with a telescope in 1610 . Id bet any such Earth rings would be pretty short-lived. And last, but not least, there is how the rings would appear from orbit, which you can see below. Would we die if the Earth had rings? This. Why doesn't space junk form a ring around Earth? Perhaps we would have realized the Earth was spherical many thousands of years earlier. You can view his artwork here. How do I distinguish between chords going 'up' and chords going 'down' when writing a harmony? Oct. 30, 2012 (June 1, 2015) http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/moon_formation.html, Miller, Ron. By now, youve probably seenthis very interesting video. Given how the rings can resemble giant arches, explorers might want to see where the arches touch down, much like a person aspires to see what's at the ends of a rainbow. It's due to the effect of the Central Force Law, the same basic reason the planets are situated in a plane around the Sun. Everything that goes in circles feels a centrifugal force. What the sky might look like if Earth had rings like Saturn, from the perspective of Guatemala. NY 10036. Well, as I tried to say, the center the particles revolve around should not be the center of the earth but the rotational axis (which obviously goes through the poles). Image source: If Earth Had a Ring Like Saturn. How do laws against computer intrusion handle the modern situation of devices routinely being under the de facto control of non-owners? There are a few things in the world that are pretty sure to happen. Can Earth have rings? Earth Science Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for those interested in the geology, meteorology, oceanography, and environmental sciences. Rings of rock and ice. An "orbital" is a stationary state of a bound system in quantum mechanics, and certainly does not belong as a tag on this question. If Earth had Rings [Pic] : r/woahdude - Reddit The title does not make sense and the pictures don't add anything at all. Nevertheless, partial cancellation of forces would make that the gravity of a "Earth's mass" ring would be much weaker than the one of an "Earth's mass" planet. Also, the rings would be located in the very worst possible place: right over the Earths equator. The U.S. Coast Guard said the sub experienced a "catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber," and confirmed that a debris field found on the sea floor was pieces of the missing sub. In comparison, near the Arctic Circle, the rings might look like a hump on the horizon. Would the atmosphere have more depth or be thinner? The actual diminution of light would depend on how wide and how thick the rings are, too. Whether or not Earth sported one ring or many depends on whether Earth also possessed "shepherd moons," small moons that clear gaps between rings and help keep particles confined within a ring, much like a sheepdog keeps sheep from wandering astray. If Earth's original ring were still in place, or if by some other collision new rings had formed in Earth's orbit, the view of these rings from Earth would vary. If Mimas really were a Death Star, Well, yes and no. Why did Kirk decide to maroon Khan and his people instead of turning them over to Starfleet? Thats the best place to put satellites theyre easier to launch near the equator (you get a boost of 1600 kph from the Earths spin that way) and thats where you want to put geosynchronous satellites for weather and communications. This means that if a moon, ring or other object has an orbital trajectory too close to a planet, the unequal gravitational pull could tear it apart. ).If you draw a picture with the force vectors and then draw the resulting vector, youll find that there is always a little force that pulls the particles into the plane of the equator (only there the forces really cancel. What the sky might look like during an equinox if Earth had rings. The Time of Giants: How Did Dinosaurs Get So Big? One of those was the newborn Earth, and the other was a Mars-size rock called Theia, named after the mother of the moon in Greek mythology. you mean this is caused because Earth is not perfectly round and gravity is not everywhere the same because of mountains you get these formation of a disk around the equator? . That means winters in both hemispheres might be somewhat colder. He went so far as to say that our planet boasted rings on 16 separate occasions in the past. Is there a reason why the Roche Limit forms where the axis the lines up with it's angular momentum? What might Earth be like crowned with rings? He covers all things human origins and astronomy as well as physics, animals and general science topics. Near the equator, the ring would be like thin slices of light that erupted from distant Earth horizons and stretched into the sky as far as the eye could see. Catastrophic climate 'doom loops' could start in just 15 years, new study warns. It imagines what it would look like if Earth had rings like those of Saturn! So how would Earth acquire a ring? If Earth had Rings. It follows the oblate spheroid shape of Earth. This is part of what is known as the Impact Hypothesis of the . So, commercial airplanes, which typically fly up to 7 miles (11 km), would be fine. There is no definitive answer to this question since it is a hotly debated topic among astronomers. Space debris is a bad enough problem now with all the junk in orbit; havingbillionsof particles out there wouldnt help any! In short, if Earth had rings, life would probably still exist, but not life as we know it. But would they last? If such super-massive rings coalesce into moons, those moons could be more massive than Earth's itself, so Earth would be orbiting the moons more than the other way around. The Roche Limit can be viewed as an Earth shaped imaginary "border", on average 9,492 km from the centre of Earth, 1.49 times Earth's radius, for rigid bodies. What would happen if Earth was bigger than its current size? Plate Tectonics vs Gravity for Creating Highs and Lows. How do laws against computer intrusion handle the modern situation of devices routinely being under the de facto control of non-owners. Charles has a Master of Arts degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, School of Journalism and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Florida. Top editors give you the stories you want delivered right to your inbox each weekday. November 20, 2009 by Nancy Atkinson What If Earth Had Rings? As a full-time member of the Jet Propulsion Labority who is responsible for producing visualizations, Gill certainly understands the process of bringing data to life. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. For instance, the photo of San Bernadino, CA, shows how the rings would appear in the sky at morning, with the Sun cresting the eastern horizon.
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