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by frankied on March 16th, 2005

frankied

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What causes Saturn's hundreds of rings to be distinguishably separate?

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  • by riffraff814 on March 22nd, 2005

    riffraff814

    Shepherding moons.

    Gravitational effects from the moon help keep the edges of the rings sharp.

    Frankied -- have you spoken with Goldreich and informed him of this? He'd be mighty surprised to learn that.

    http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/saturn/faq.html#shepherd has more information about shepherding moons and how they transfer gravitational energy to act as separators in the rings of Saturn and Uranus.

    Comments

    • Moons would do more to destabilize the rings then sharpen them.

      frankied

      by frankied on March 24th, 2005

    • Same principal as the stable/unstable lagrange points only on a vaster scale.

      Quirkie

      by Quirkie on March 30th, 2005

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