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Why Does Saturn Have Rings?
So, there are some amazing pictures of the Great Conjunction circulating, and some of them are taken with astronomical photography gear that shows Saturn’s rings.
A few years ago I had the privilege of a brief peek through the Lowell Telescope, located in Flagstaff, Arizona. The telescope, which was used to locate Pluto, is no longer used for science, but was recently restored and is open to the public (when the pandemic is over) and available to high school and undergrad students for projects.
The planet did not look real. It honestly looked like a painting. It was hard to believe I could just look at something that far away.
And the thing which makes Saturn is those rings. So, why does Saturn have rings? Why does Earth not have rings?
Read on.
Actually, it’s Not Just Saturn
First of all, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune do have rings. They’re just a lot smaller. Saturn has rings that can be seen through a telescope from Earth.
The rings of the other gas giants are thinner, less bright, and not visible without very special gear.
This means it’s very likely that rings are a normal feature of gas giants, and probably exist around exoplanets too. Gas giants, because of their size, collect a lot of material…