Willravel

Something like this:


Sometimes I love Youtube.

LoganSnake

Can we send some boulders up into the orbit? I want rings.

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Plan9

What do you think they're really doing with the cars acquired through Cash For Clunkers?

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FuglyStick

That's pretty cool.

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CinnamonGirl

That was awesomely fantastic. I want rings.

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Xerxys

This was awesome.

What about during the night when the rings are reflecting light, on the underside of the rings, (Southern hemisphere) will it reflect light too?

Reese

Depending on the time of year, The north should see a reflection while the south see's a silhouette or possibly nothing, like a new moon. Also, Depending on the time of year there's going to be a big shadow ring similar to an eclipse somewhere on earth because the rings are blocking the light.

Very interesting video.

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ratbastid

Also, bear in mind that during the winter, when the northern hemisphere is inclined away from the sun, the northern hemisphere is on the "underside" of the rings. Winters would probably be measurably harsher, with the shadow of the rings blocking the sun for some portion of the day. Also the equatorial region would probably be less warm in general, for the same reason.

MexicanOnABike

something to reduce global warming? let's do it!!

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BadNick

so how do we do this? blow the moon up into smithereens and that'll make the rings? oh, oh....what about tides?

Cynthetiq

this is pretty cool. I'd think it would be pretty neat to see such things from different parts of the world. Having seen the Northern Lights and seeing how they are makes me think that this is about how it would look like.

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ring

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/found-n...rns-rings.html

Interesting to think about, yes.

LoganSnake

An admin who doesn't use the Search function!?

Heresy! Burn the witch!

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Jetée

there are rings, of course, on Earth, yet they are still unexplained.



(interesting to note that I'm the first one to post this article on TFP, even though I kinda shun the news media like Bigfoot shuns its own existence.)

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Cynthetiq

aah... yes. the week i wasn't here...

thanks!

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lostgirl

The tidal forces created by the rings would be catastrophic. Since our moon affects the tides, and the speed at witch our earth rotates, I am sure it would interfere with the circadian rhythm. The earth would not be as it is today. I am sure it would have affected the evolution of many species, including our own.

I would love to see it though.

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Xerxys

^^ Not to mention the earths composition, size and geographic arrangement. Saturn (and many other planets' shapes and locations) are influenced by the sun and the planet Jupiter.

It would take a lot of climate change for the planet to actually be stable enough to effect life. We would not be existing if earth had rings, at least, not at this time anyway.

lostgirl

^^ Yep, you're right, we certainly wouldn't be here.

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Martian

There's a considerable body of evidence that points to the idea that the Earth did have a ring system fairly early in it's lifespan.

Planetary rings are a fairly common phenomenon, as noted in our own solar system (4 of 8 planets are known to have them). The general consensus, however, is that they're not stable and will dissipate over time. The timeframe on that is typically thousands or millions of years, but the presence of other bodies can lengthen that considerably. The gas giants all have multiple satellites that help to keep the ring systems coherent.

A planetary ring is thought to form in one of two ways. Planets themselves are formed from accretion discs (also known in this context as protoplanetary discs) which contain stellar dust and particulates; over time, gravity causes all of the 'stuff' to clump together and form into a planet. Matter outside the planet's roche limit but within the planet's gravity well may coalesce into a moon -- this was once thought to be how our moon came to be, but has been deprecated in favour of the impact hypothesis in recent times. Anything within the roche limit, however, will fail to coalesce due to the high gravity of the planet itself. This results in a ring.

The other scenario for planetary rings is that an object may fall within a planet's roche limit and enter an orbit there. If that were to happen, tidal forces would tear the object apart, again resulting in a ring.

The Earth may have had a ring formed from leftover debris very early in it's life, possibly even predating the Moon. However, with nothing to keep the ring in place it gradually dissipated. For those who want a new ring system, take heart; it's hypothetically possible that the Moon's orbit will one day destabilize, causing it to fall within the planet's roche limit and be transformed into a planetary ring. In a few billion years, you may get what you want.

I think it goes without saying that a planetary ring suddenly appearing around the Earth would be rather catastrophic. No need to worry, though. That's nearly impossible, and we're far more likely to be wiped out by a meteor before such a thing could ever happen.

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lostgirl

True the earth did most likely have a ring system early on in the planets formation. Many scientists theorize that another large planitary body, about the size of Mars, struck primordial Earth, rusulting in a ring system that eventualy coalesced to form our moon.

Not likely because the moon is moving away from us at a rate of about 3.8 centimeters per year.

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ASU2003

Wasn't there a space station shaped like a ring in Halo? I would like to see that.