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This is Saturn.

In every picture of Saturn, we can see that her rings are arranged in a perfect 2-d plane.

So the question I ask is simple, why are they arranged so? Why aren't the rings arranged in the 3-d space around Saturn?

I know that the orbits of planets around sun is also 3 dimensional, then why doesn't it apply to the rings of Saturn as well.

Qmechanic
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khaxan
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  • Possible duplicates: https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/8502/2451 , https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/26083/2451 , https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/6545/2451 , https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/281828/2451 and links therein. – Qmechanic Feb 16 '23 at 08:14

1 Answers1

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I think your question is a matter of scale. Various astrophysical objects, ranging from spiral galaxies, solar systems, to the rings of Saturn form as a result of an initial spinning ball of dust and gas. All three of these objects are on very different physical scales, but each one flattens out with time into a disk. The solar system is approximately a disk, our galaxy is a disk, and so are Saturn's rings. The only difference between the three in the vertical extent of the disks--our galaxy is a lot thicker than Saturn's rings, but it also has a much, much larger radius.

Any object spinning about an axis--even the earth--will flatten slightly into an oblate spheroid. If the spinning object isn't held together strongly, its component particles--whether they be rocks in Saturn's rings or stars in our galaxy--will get pulled outward by centripetal forces and eventually turn the system into a disk.

The same physics is at play at all scales.

klippo
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