![]() b) The orbital velocity is shown as a rendered plot which ranges from 17 – 24 km/s, with the orbital direction shown by the arrows (Phil. It can then be treated more like a fluid comprised of lots of small individual objects on their own orbit.įigure 3 |a) Snapshot from a computer simulation of ring of 100,000 particles the same size as Saturn’s around a planet the same size as Saturn. ![]() You should also notice that this would cause a ring to orbit at different velocities and not orbit the planet as a single solid object. These high velocities, that are about 10 times faster than a bullet, are one of the reasons why it isn’t a good idea to get spacecraft to close to the rings. What we find is that the ring closest to the planet is orbiting much faster than parts of the ring furthest away (see Fig 3), with velocities around 20 km/s. This velocity ( v) depends on the mass ( M) of the planet and the distance of the ring particle to the planet ( r), given below. Thus, particles must be travelling at a right angle to this acceleration fast enough they are are constantly falling towards the planet on a curved path, known as an orbit. ![]() The gravitational force from Saturn constantly accelerates particles in the ring towards it. Given that the rings the radius of rings is from approximately 70,000km – 140,000km it requires a significant velocity to cover this distance in under a day. This could not be further from the truth with particles in the rings taking between 5 – 15 hours to go round the planet once. When we look at planetary rings from a distance they appear to be motionless and still. If we take Saturn’s rings as an example, since they are the most studied, what are some key features of planetary rings? Orbital velocities However, a further three planets (Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune) and even some asteroids are also known to have rings orbiting around them as well.įigure 1 | Image taken by the Cassini spacecraft of Saturn and its rings backlit by the Sun (image credit: NASA/JPL).įigure 2 | An image of Uranus and its narrow rings taken by the 10 meter Keck telescope. The rings around Saturn are probably the most obvious planetary rings in our Solar System.
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