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Planetary Ring Systems. Brenton C. Davis Tuesday, April 20 th 2010. The History of the Rings . In 1610 Galileo Galilei first observed, but was unable to identify Saturn’s Rings To further mystify Galileo, the rings “disappeared” in 1612 and “reappeared” in 1613.
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Planetary Ring Systems Brenton C. Davis Tuesday, April 20th 2010
The History of the Rings • In 1610 Galileo Galilei first observed, but was unable to identify Saturn’s Rings • To further mystify Galileo, the rings “disappeared” in 1612 and “reappeared” in 1613 • Long ago, Sauron created the One…
A New Ringbearer • It wasn’t until 1655 that Christiaan Huygens suggested that Saturn was surrounded by a ring. • Robert Hooke added to this observation by the notation of shadow’s on the rings.
Coming to the Present • In 1675, Giovanni Cassini discovers gaps in a system of concentric rings • Pierre-Simon Laplace suggested, in 1787, that these ringlets were solid • However, through the careful application of Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation, James Maxwell was able to prove they must be composed of numerous small particles
There are more rings? • In the 1970’s and the 1980’s rings were discovered around the other three gas giants • The Neptune and Uranus’ rings were detected indirectly. • Jupiter was observed by the Voyager 1 Space Probe
Planetary Ring Formation • Collisions • Keplerian Shear • Shepherd Moons • Orbital Resonances