Why do some planets have rings?

Saturn

We know many planets that have some kind of ring system. And the most well-known of those planets is Saturn. All gas giants in our solar system have a ring system that orbits them. So there are many theories about the origin of those rings. 

There is the possibility that forming of the rings is unique. So that means there are more than one reasons why some planets have rings. But if we are thinking about the gas giants in our solar system we must realize that those planets are more distant than Earth. 

So solar wind in that area is weaker than in the Earth's distance. And that means the particle (or ion) flow from the Sun would not blow those particles away. That explains why Earth has no rings. The reason for that is the solar winds. That are blowing sand or some other particles away from the Earth's orbiter. 

"The backlit (of Saturn's) E ring, with Enceladus, silhouetted against it. The moon's south polar jets erupt brightly below it." (Wikipedia/Rings of Saturn)

There may be many things that are forming ring systems for planets. There are three of those theories. And maybe there are many other reasons why some planets have rings. And some have not. 

*Plasma- or Van Allen rings of the planets are capturing sand bites that travel at the solar system. 

*In the case of Saturn, the shepherd moons are also playing their role in forming and anchoring the ring system. The shepherd moons are moons. That is orbiting the ring system on both sides of it. And the gravitational fields anchoring the objects in their places. 

*The Van Allen belts could capture small particles. And that explains why Uranus' rings seem to have no shepherd moons. The Van Allen ring or plasma ring can capture very light and slow-speed objects. So that means there could be many reasons why some planets have rings. 

*If the planet's distance is high enough from the Sun solar wind would not blow that dust away. 

*Destruction of the ancient moon can explain ring systems that involve large particles. 

*That moon could be destroyed by cosmic impact. Or tidal forces of the planet and its other moons can destroy that ancient moon. 

The planets with ring systems 

a) Jupiter's rings

a) "A schema of Jupiter's ring system showing the four main components. For simplicity, Metis and Adrastea are depicted as sharing their orbit. (In reality, Metis is very slightly closer to Jupiter.)" (Wikipedia, Rings of Jupiter) 

a2)

"Metis orbiting at the edge of Jupiter's main ring, as imaged by the New Horizons spacecraft in 2007" (Wikipedia/Rings of Jupiter)

b) Saturn's rings

"Side view of Saturn system, showing Enceladus in relation to the E Ring" (Wikipedia/Rings of Saturn)

b2)

"The full set of rings, imaged as Saturn eclipsed the Sun from the vantage of the Cassini orbiter, 1.2 million km distant, on 19 July 2013 (brightness is exaggerated). Earth appears as a dot at 4 o'clock, between the G and E rings." (Wikipedia/Rings of Saturn)

c) Uranus rings

"The scheme of Uranus's ring-moon system. Solid lines denote rings; dashed lines denote orbits of moons". (Wikipedia/Rings of Uranus)

"The scheme of Neptune's ring-moon system. Solid lines denote rings; dashed lines denote orbits of moons".

d) Neptune rings

d2) "Rings of Neptune imaged by the James Webb Space Telescope's NIRCam instrument" (Wikipedia/Rings of Neptune)

*There is the possibility that the planet capture the large dwarf planet and then the tidal forces will rip that dwarf planet in pieces. 

*In that case. The shepherd moons or moons that are orbiting the planet at both sides of the ring system are anchoring those objects in their places with their gravitational effects. 

And that means there is a possibility the plasma rings or Van Allen rings of giant planets capture dust, asteroids, and comets that travel in solar systems. And at least in cases where the ring system is formed of sand or other way saying small-size particles. That is the reason why some gas planets have rings. 

Another reason could be the ancient moon that is broken by cosmic impacts. That thing can be a reason, for planets like Saturn have larger objects in their rings. When that hypothetical moon is destroyed. The particles that are remaining of that ancient moon left to orbit Saturn. 

In some of this theory's other versions, Saturn collided with an asteroid cloud that could be the remnant of some ancient dwarf planet and some of those remnants remained to orbit that planet as the well-known ring system. 

https://scitechdaily.com/why-are-some-planets-surrounded-by-rings/amp/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rings_of_Jupiter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rings_of_Neptune

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rings_of_Saturn

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rings_of_Uranus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_force

By the way...

The idea of the solar ring- or ring-shaped solar panels is taken from the planetary rings and one hoax theory. 

There is one UFO theory that I want to mention here. That theory is that the Uranus ring system is the solar panels that are orbiting the gas planet. Today that theory is crushed, but it gave an idea that maybe in the future Earth and some other planets or space colonies will get their power from solar panels that orbit the planets. 

The energy will transport to those colonies in the form of radio- laser or microwaves. That kind of solar ring or extremely thin silicone panels might solve the energy problems of the future. If those solar rings or ring-shaped solar panels are rotating or orbiting the Earth or some other planet the gravitational and centripetal force would have the same power, and they would anchor that solar panel in place. But that thing requires that the panels will move all the time. 

It's possible that between the center planet and the inner edge of the silicone panels is the frame. The orbiting silicone panel delivers energy to that stable frame. And that frame sends energy to the receiving stations on Earth. 

Image: Pinterest

https://astronomyandtechnology.blogspot.com/

 

 The spaceflight to Jupiter and beyond

Image 1) Artist's concept of Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter.

NASA is looking for contractors for the "Prometheus" or JIMO (Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter) mission system. And those nuclear-powered unmanned space probes are opening the road to the sample bringing missions to outer solar systems. 

The experiences that are opening the road to the manned missions to the outer solar system. Those missions require more powerful and advanced technology than missions to Mars. 

What if the EEG of the sleeping crew can use to control spacecraft? 

The scientific team talks lucid messages to people's dreams.

The ability to control dreams is one of the most interesting visions in the world of neuroscience. Dreams are the position where the brain can use the most of its capacity. And that time can use to turn the brain into a productive machine. The ability to control dreams is making it possible to create the obsession to make something. But if we will create a system that can interact with sleeping people. That thing makes it possible to communicate with people. 

While they are in anesthesia or even in a coma. Theoretically, it is possible to make a system that projects people's dreams to the computer screens. That thing requires "only" the system that decodes the EEG to the computer. The ability to communicate with brains while the person is sleeping can play a key role in the future spaceflights to the outer solar system. The computer can input data into the brains of the crew members. 

While they are on the extremely long journey to Jupiter. In that kind of journey, long-term anesthesia is required for keeping the social problems minimal. So in that kind of system, the brains of the crew members can use to communicate with computers. That means those people would control the craft by using EEG waves while they are sleeping. Jupiter is maybe the limit for the nuclear rockets. 

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How a futuristic probe brings samples from Jupiter to Earth?

There is possible to combine flyby and the orbital mission by dropping the sub-craft to the planetary orbiter from the flyby craft. But that sub-craft requires the breaking time. The idea is that the Jupiter craft will make a flyby of Jupiter. 

During that part of the mission, it drops the orbiter craft. Then it can fly to Saturn and use that planet as the gravitational sling that takes it back to Jupiter. There the smaller probe will dock to the main flyby probe. And return to Earth.

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And the journey to there and back requires near 4000 days. The flight time to Jupiter is 600 days if the system makes a flyby. But positioning the craft to the orbital trajectory requires 2000 days. And that is one of the biggest problems in space flight. The journey to Jupiter and back requires 11 years. And that means the craft would just visit that planet. That is an extremely long time. And that is one of the limits for the plans to fly to other planets. 

But if we want to fly farther the problem is aging. That means the aging of the DNA must deny. If we want to send living astronauts to another planet or solar system. There is the possibility that in the distant future. Biotechnology can fix the damages to the DNA of the crew. In that system, the DNA of the crew has been stored in the digital memory of the artificial intelligence. 

And then, the nanomachines can replace the damaged DNA while crew members are aging. If the aging of the crew members can deny. By using some other method than cooling them to zero kelvin degrees. That thing makes it possible to use their brains as part of the computer system. 

Image 2) Daedalus spacecraft concept (Wikipedia)

The Daedalus 3 plan. 

As I am written many times in the 1970s British Interplanetary Society created the Daedalus project. The hypothetical unmanned spacecraft can use to travel to Proxima Centauri or Barnard's star. Maybe Daedalus can ever take astronauts to other solar systems. But that craft and its fusion engine could be a powerful tool for traveling inside the solar system. 

But there are made some theoretical mission profiles for visiting the Proxima and Alpha Centauri. 

The thing is that the flight time to Proxima Centauri would be extremely long if the craft must station to the orbit of that star. The Daedalus can reach 25% of the speed of light by using the antimatter engine. But that is very low. That means the hypothetical Daedalus might be an unmanned system controlled by very advanced artificial intelligence. The flyby would be a very good possibility. Because in that case, the craft must not break when it comes to the Proxima system. 

The idea is that the craft would make flyby but in that case, it shoots the sub-probe to the orbiter of the Proxima Centauri. The sub probe would collect samples from the Proxima system. And then the main craft or another Daedalus would use Alpha Centauri as the gravitation sling that would turn in back to Earth. During that process, the sub-probe will get back and dock to Daedalus. 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/dreams-talk-lucid-messages-b1804671.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Daedalus

Image 1 ) https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-selects-contractor-for-first-prometheus-mission-to-jupiter

Image 2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Daedalus

https://thoughtsaboutsuperpositions.blogspot.com/

The Titan moon, and its atmosphere

The Titan moon, and its atmosphere

https://kimmoswritings.blogspot.com/

Copyright: Hardy

The Titan moon, and its atmosphere

On the top of this text is the David Hardy's painting of the surface of Titan, and the second image is taken by the Huygens lander from the surface of the Titan moon. The Saturnian giant moon, Titan is the only known particle in our solar system, there are lakes, what is formed by hydrocarbons. The temperature in that moon is very low, 170 degrees Celsius, and that makes possible that this moon, what is a little bit smaller than  Ganymede has the liquid hydrocarbon in the surface.

The gravity field of this moon is weaker than Earth, and the person, who would wight 150 kilograms on Earth would weigh only 10 kilograms on Titan, and that would be very interesting because that thing means that the gravity field is really weak. Titan is actually very famous because if it clouds, and hydrocarbon oceans, what was predicted in the 1970s. The thing what makes Titan very interesting is its atmosphere.

There is a problem with the gas pressure, what is 1,42 ATM

The pressure on the surface of Titan is a problem for the scientists. The hydrocarbon atmosphere causes the pressure on the Titan is very huge, and that is actually 1,42 times higher than on planet Earth. And that means there is something special in this moon. In fact, the atmosphere of that moon should be sucked away by the gravity of the planet Saturn.  The reason is that the weak gravity field should not make this pressure possible. The thing is that Titan should lose its atmosphere to space, and there are more things, what makes this particular moon so interesting.

There are hydrocarbon oceans, as we know, but in 1970s space art, some artists have predicted the form of the surface of that moon very sharply. And there are some interesting questions about that thing. How did that prediction happen? The Titan hydrocarbon water system was found by Cassini in the same year when it sends the Huygens lander to the surface of that mysterious moon.

A couple of things about electric powered aircraft

A couple of things about electric powered aircraft


In the next text, I will handle green technology. That means there are not things like nuclear power, but if the producer of the electric powered aircraft would have permission, that means that the electric powered aircraft can fly even years. If those small size aircraft would equip with the RTG (Radio Thermal Generator) that makes the ability for that aircraft to fly even the yeas. And the thin, why I have mentioned this at the beginning of this text, is that similar bodies, what are used in the electric powered VTOL (Vertical Take-off and Land) - aircraft, can be used in the probes, what are send to other planets.

Maybe in tomorrow, that kind of VTOL probe would research the surface of the planet Venus and that kind of probe can land in the interesting places, where it can take samples from the surface of the planet. And of course, those systems might operate in the surface and atmosphere of the Saturn's moon Titan in some day at the future. That system might have sophisticated artificial intelligence, which allows it to operate independently. It might have laser-spectrometers and another kind of sensors to search for the place, where could be something interesting, and then the probe can land to that place, and take the samples to observe by microscope in its automatic laboratory. But this is the vision of the distant future.

The limit in the electric powered aircraft is the battery, which has a short time capacity, and that is the biggest problem with those aircraft. The limit of the chemical battery is giving those aircraft very short operating time, and this is the problem with them. Solar panels are used to extend the lifetime of the battery and on sunny days that lightweight silicone panels would give extended operating time for the electric power aircraft, but the flight time of those vehicles would be almost every case under an hour.

The use of fuel cells would give those aircraft more flight time, and if we are thinking the "green fuel" the hydrogen would be suitable for that mission. But the problem is "how to get hydrogen?". The production process of that gas is simple, only the electrolysis system must be installed in the production plant, and that is actually the tank, where are two electrodes.

The sea water has one problem, there is also sodium and chlorine, but the separation of the hydrogen would be made by using the abstraction, where the isolation of hydrogen is done by decrease the temperature of the mixture to the temperature, where the only hydrogen is in the gas form.  The use of hydrogen would give a clean energy source for the aircraft, and in fact, the hydrogen can also be used in the conventional jet engines. If we are thinking the use of hydrogen as the fuel of jet fighters, that thing can give the extreme flight support capacity for the aircraft carriers, because they can produce the hydrogen from water by using electrolysis.

Of course, there are the test planes where is extremely long wings, and those solar-powered aircraft are actually hybrid versions of gliders, where the electric system is taking energy from the solar panels and windmills, what are extending the flight time, and the thing, what makes electric power fascinating is that those aircraft would not need oxygen, and that's why they can fly in extremely high altitude, and the record of those devices is over 30 kilometers.

The thing, what makes those unmanned vehicles very attractive in the eyes of the military and law enforcement and natural resource authorities is that they can patrol the certain route even months if they get enough energy for their systems, and that makes them very good vehicles for border patrol. But those electric powered high altitude platforms can follow the situation in the battlefield, and they can show targets to tactical attack aircraft.

If those vehicles are made by using STEALTH material, they are very hard to shoot down. And they can be the modern versions of the observation balloon of the artillery. But when we are thinking about the electric powered aircraft, those vehicles can equip with the systems, which allows them to create their electric power by themselves. The expanding long tube would just put on the top of the aircraft, and it would suck the air through the turbine wheel, and the induction motor can be used as the generator.

Also, that that tube, what conducts the air to turbogenerator can connect to the balloon or airship, and it can increase the airflow, which makes the recharging the batteries more effective and faster. When we are thinking about the speed of electric powered aircraft, we might think that they are slow, but in fact, the thing is not necessary like that.  We all know that the combustion in the motor can be replaced by the electric arc, and if there is the jet engine, what is known as the electric-arc jet, that means that the aircraft can fly extremely fast.  Also, other electric dynamic motors like ion motors can be used with normal batteries, but the problem is the time, what the capacity of the batteries stands.