One of the most impressive structures in the solar system is undoubtedly the rings of Saturn . They stretch for tens of thousands of kilometers , but are only a few meters thick and are made up of countless fragments of rock and ice, orbiting around the gas giant. Saturn of course is not the only planet, or body, in the solar system that has rings , although theirs are the most colorful. The other three giant planets, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune , each have their own ring system. Uranus’s is the most significant of these, and Neptune’s appears to be incomplete, appearing as broken arcs rather than a continuous ring.
Additionally, we know that the dwarf planet Haumea and even an asteroid , named 10199 Chariclo , also have rings. Apparently this type of structure is not as unusual as we once thought. The logical question after learning all this would be, could the Earth have rings? And also, what would they look like from the surface?
Answering the first question: yes, it could. There’s nothing to stop that except the fact that the material for those rings has to come from somewhere. But if we go back to the origins of our planet, for a short time the Earth probably had rings. A brief period of time on astronomical scales, probably a few million years or at least hundreds of thousands of years. About a hundred million years after the Earth formed, it collided with another body , we think similar in size to Mars.
The collision was so intense that a large amount of material was thrown into space and ended up joining and merging to form the Moon [link to “How was the Moon formed?”]. In addition, it is quite likely that some of this expelled material remained in orbit around the Earth but too close to it for tidal forces to allow it to congregate to form a satellite, forming bands of material around the planet: rings . Of course that has already happened and that material ended up falling to the earth’s surface over time, leaving no trace of its existence.
But we can still imagine what these rings would look like if they had survived to this day or if some astronomical process formed them again (without destroying us). These rings would be arranged in the plane of the terrestrial equator . Although at the time of formation they were more dispersed, their orbit around the Earth would take them to those latitudes. This would therefore mean that they would have a different appearance depending on where on the planet we were . Near the equator they would appear as a thin band high in the sky, while near the poles they would appear as a bulge near the horizon. Probably the best latitude to enjoy them would be a medium latitude, like that of the Iberian Peninsula.
Located only a few thousand kilometers above the Earth’s surface , these rings would take up so much space in the sky and reflect so much sunlight that it would never truly be night . They would of course be visible in broad daylight , like the full Moon. Our mythology and legends would no doubt be very different and full of stories about gods and heroes who visited or used the rings in one way or another. They would probably have a place in many world religions and would feed the popular imagination like few other things.
In addition, they would have been used since ancient times for the orientation of travelers and adventurers . Especially for boaters. With a simple glance at the rings they could easily find out what latitude they were at. In our world this has been done using the position of the Sun, the Moon or the stars, but the rings would always be visible in the sky, being much more useful for these purposes.
But not everything would be so romantic. Their presence would make it extremely difficult to observe the night sky , both with the naked eye and with instruments, so perhaps our knowledge of the universe and everything beyond the solar system would be considerably less. They would probably not affect satellites in low orbits too much , such as those studying the Earth’s atmosphere or the International Space Station, but they would affect those in larger orbits , since, at the very least, they would block any radio communication with them. In addition, when leaving Earth’s orbit we should take them into account. Currently rockets are usually launched from latitudes close to the equator, because this saves fuel, so they would be taking off in the direction of these same rings.
For a few days a year, the Sun would hide behind the rings , which would cast its shadow on the planet’s surface. This would have consequences on the climate, although these are difficult to predict. Undoubtedly, this occultation would lower temperatures considerably , as occurs during a solar eclipse but for a longer period of time. For example, at the spring and autumn equinoxes, from the Earth’s equator, we would see the Sun position itself just behind the rings, its disk being divided by them and projecting a shadow in the form of a fine line.
