Exploring Planetary Rings: Hypotheses and Discoveries

2023-04-27 14:03:45

You have surely seen the magnificent images of the James Webb telescope, those of the rings of Uranus and Neptune. How did its rings form?

Until recently, it was thought that only Saturn had a ring system, before realizing that it was a fairly common phenomenon. There are several hypotheses about their formation, but there does not seem to be scientific consensus on any of them. Added to this is the discovery of a new type of planetary ring around Quaoar, an object at the edge of our solar system, with extraordinary characteristics. A discovery that teases existing theories.

To talk about it, CQFD Science is pleased to receive Bruno Sicardyprofessor at Sorbonne University and researcher at the Paris Observatory, and Aurélien Cridaprofessor at the Côte d’Azur University and at the Côte d’Azur Observatory, at the Lagrange laboratory.

Why are Saturn’s rings “raining” on the giant planet and what effect does this have on the planet’s atmosphere?

Report produced by Antoine Beauchamp.

Meeting with Lotfi Ben Jaffel, astrophysicist and CNRS researcher at the Paris Institute of Astrophysics. Saturn’s rings rain down on the giant planet’s atmosphere. It is even estimated at around 10 tons, the quantity of matter that “falls” each second in the direction of the planet. Lotfi Ben Jaffel looked into this phenomenon and asked himself the question of the consequences of this fall of matter on the atmosphere of Saturn. Its results first have a consequence on the understanding of a phenomenon that was not well known. But his method could also be used to find, outside our solar system, something never before observed: exo-rings around exoplanets.

LA_SCIENCE_CQFD – Report

7 min