This short article was initially released at The Conversation. The publication contributed the post to Space.coms Expert Voices: Op-Ed & & Insights.Maggie Lieu, Research Fellow, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of NottinghamWhat are the rings around planets made of?– Vihan, aged five, Chennai, IndiaLots people recognize with photos of the world Saturn and its unmistakable ring. In truth, Saturn doesnt have just one ring– if you look through a telescope, you will see that Saturn really has a minimum of 8 rings. This is called a ring system.Saturn is not the only planet with rings. Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus all have ring systems too, however their rings are smaller sized, dimmer and more tough to see.Related: Saturns remarkable call closeCurious Kids is a series by The Conversation that offers children the possibility to have their concerns about the world addressed by specialists. If you have a concern you d like a professional to answer, send it to [email protected]. We wont have the ability to respond to every question, but well do our extremely best. (Image credit: The Conversation)These rings are formed of billions of little particles orbiting close to their world. Nevertheless, what these particles are made of can vary from world to planet. Even rings in the exact same ring system can be made of various things.Radio wavesWe can begin to get a concept of what these particles are made from by exercising how big they are and how heavy they are. One way of doing this is with a strategy called radio occultation.Objects in space with changing magnetic fields– such as worlds or perhaps area satellites– produce radio waves. As they go through the rings around worlds, these radio signals are affected in various ways by the particles in the ring, depending upon the size of the particles and how heavy they are. They may be made of a product such as iron if the radio signals reveal that the particles are heavy. Less heavy particles may be made from a less thick product, such as aluminum.We can likewise measure how reflective the particles are to assist exercise what they are made of and what state they remain in– such as whether they are strong or liquid. Water can be found in different states: it can be liquid, however it can also be solid as ice or snow. Ice is more reflective than water, and snow is extremely reflective– more so than ice or water. Thanks to measurements like this, we understand that Saturns ring particles are primarily comprised of water ice.(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)Jupiters ring system is made up of fine dust particles, but these are not water ice particles like Saturn. Rather the particles are most likely to be rocky, made up of similar materials as asteroids and rocky moons.Although what Uranus rings are made of is still unidentified, they are dark and not very reflective. This suggests that they are not made from water ice. Instead, they might be dust particles made from carbon or consisting of carbon like charcoal.Neptunes rings are even darker than those of Uranus, and the density suggests that they are made of even finer dust. This is most likely to be some type of carbon or a source of carbon such as methane ice.Measuring lightIn order to get more detailed information about what rings are made from, scientists analyze the light that the particles produce. We do this by splitting the illuminate into a rainbow, much like how rain beads split sunshine up into a rainbow. This rainbow is called the spectra, and it can inform us detailed info about the color of the particles and what they are made of. At the moment, Saturn is the only world for which we have high resolution spectra that can inform us about its rings.Measuring the spectra of Saturns ring particles reveals us that as well as water ice, they likewise contain iron and organic material called tholins, which provide a small red color. Some of these particles might be as small as a grain of sand but others are as large as a double-decker bus.A brand-new telescope, called the James Webb Space Telescope, will soon help us take a more detailed appearance at these ring systems and determine their spectra to find out more about just what they are made of. Its possible that with this new telescope, we will even find rings around moons, not simply planets.When sending in questions to Curious Kids, make certain you include the askers given name, age and town or city. You can: This post is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Check out the original article.Follow all of the Expert Voices concerns and debates– and enter into the discussion– on Facebook and Twitter. The views expressed are those of the author and do not always show the views of the publisher.
The publication contributed the short article to Space.coms Expert Voices: Op-Ed & & Insights.Maggie Lieu, Research Fellow, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of NottinghamWhat are the rings around planets made of? (Image credit: The Conversation)These rings are formed of billions of small particles orbiting close to their planet. As they pass through the rings around planets, these radio signals are impacted in different methods by the particles in the ring, depending on the size of the particles and how heavy they are. Some of these particles may be as small as a grain of sand however others are as big as a double-decker bus.A new telescope, called the James Webb Space Telescope, will soon assist us take a more in-depth look at these ring systems and measure their spectra to find out more about what precisely they are made of. Its possible that with this new telescope, we will even find rings around moons, not just planets.When sending in concerns to Curious Kids, make sure you include the askers first name, age and town or city.