Lord of the Rings

(3 Minute Read. 17May2023)

Wedding Rings

Where did the rings around planets come from? What is the origin of these riveting rings?

The second-most famous rings in the Solar System (after wedding rings) are the rings of Saturn.

But other planets have rings as well. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune all have rings. The dwarf planets Chariklo and Haumea also have rings.

Who was the first to see Saturn’s rings? As far as we know, Galileo became the first post-Flood viewer of Saturn’s rings in 1610. Uranus’ rings were discovered in 1977, Jupiter’s rings in 1979, Neptune’s in 1989, Chariklo’s in 2013, and Haumea’s in 2017.

Saturn’s Rings

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System after Jupiter. It is huge compared to Earth. If Earth is scaled to a golf ball, then Saturn would be a beach ball 16 inches in diameter.

Saturn’s Rings in Ultraviolet Light
(From NASA’S Hubble Space Telescope)

Saturn has thousands of rings nested closely together with some intervening gaps. Each ring and gap is named. The rings are almost perfect circles that orbit Saturn at different speeds. No one knows why — except for the omniscient Great Creator Who conceived, designed, and sculpted the marvelous rings.

What makes up the rings of Saturn? They are thought to be made up of billions of bits of dust, ice, and rock from comets, asteroids, or shattered moons torn apart by Saturn’s powerful gravity. The ring particles are 99.9% water ice, and they range in size from dust specks to over 30 feet in diameter — that’s as large as a three-story building.

Saturn’s seven main rings were labeled alphabetically in order of their discovery. Moving outward from Saturn they are D, C, B, A, F, G, E. The smallest ring is about 4,120 miles above Saturn’s equator. The outer radius of the E ring is about 300,000 miles. Thus if Saturn’s main ring system were placed around Earth, then the ring system would extend thousands of miles past the Moon — because the Moon is only about 240,000 miles from Earth.
(Ref: NASA’S Saturnian Rings Fact Sheet)

Curious Rings

In the 1980s NASA’s Voyager space probe discovered an intricate structure to the rings consisting of thousands of thin gaps and ringlets. The rings range from about 30 feet to 3,000 feet in thickness.

Voyager also revealed wheel-like spokes in the rings. The Cassini space probe (1997-2017) showed some rings are braided. These features were completely unexpected and haven’t yet been explained — except by the ingenuity of the Great Creator.

In 2009 astronomers announced the discovery of a vast, enormous, previously unseen ring around Saturn. This ring, the Phoebe ring, was discovered using the Spitzer infrared space telescope, and it is Saturn’s largest-diameter ring. The ring’s inner and outer radii respectively are about 4,800,000 miles and 7,750,000 miles. The vertical thickness of the ring is about 1,500,000 miles. The entire volume of the Phoebe ring is large enough to hold one billion Earths!

The Phoebe ring is tilted at an angle of 27° to the other rings and to Saturn’s equatorial plane. It orbits Saturn in the opposite direction to the other rings. It is named after Saturn’s ninth-largest moon Phoebe whose diameter is 124 miles. The Phoebe moon’s orbital plane is also tilted at an angle of 27° to Saturn’s equatorial plane, and its orbit is retrograde like the Phoebe ring.

Saturn currently has 83 known moons, but this month the International Astronomical Union plans to recognize 62 more moons, thereby bringing Saturn’s total to 145 moons. This will surpass Jupiter’s current total of 95 known moons, making Saturn and then Jupiter the planets with the most moons in the Solar System. Some astronomers think that moons are involved in the formation of planetary rings.

Fingerprints in Space

The Great Creator has left His fingerprints all over the universe for those who have eyes to see. The marvels of giant Saturn and its complex rings and moons testify to the Great Creator’s incomprehensible wisdom and mighty power. The planetary ring systems testify to His creativity and His awesome beauty of design.
The heavens are telling of the glory of God;
And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. (Psalm 19:1)
O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth,
Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;
What is man that You take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him? (Psalm 8:1,3,4)

Who is the Lord of the Rings? The Great Creator hung planets in space adorned with rings about 6,000 years ago on Creation Day 4. The Lord of the Rings is Yahweh, the Great Creator, the God of the Bible.

Read the sequel, Impossible Rings?, about newly discovered rings around a dwarf planet at the edge of the Solar System that astronomers say are “impossible” according to current evolutionary theories. Yet the rings are there, so something must be wrong with the evolutionary theory. What is the solution? Read Impossible Rings? for the answer.

Questions to Ponder

1. What could we understand about the Great Creator from studying Saturn and its rings and moons?
2. How can pondering the rings of Saturn affect your mind and heart today?

Share your thoughts on these questions in the comments below. It could encourage or help another reader.

For Christ and His Kingdom.
Alere Flammam Veritatis.
Soli Deo Gloria.

Read the sequel:
Impossible Rings?

Subscribe – Don’t miss future blog posts!
Click the sidebar’s “SUBSCRIBE” button to follow the
Bible-Science Guy Blog. You’ll automatically receive
new posts free by email. Click SUBSCRIBE NOW!

Click Best of Bible-Science Guy for lists of the best Bible-Science Guy posts of each year.
Click Bible-Science Guy Table of Contents for a list of all blog posts starting in October 2007.

©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith”
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
“for the defense of the gospel”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:5; Phil 1:16)
Wednesday May 17, 2023 A.D.

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork. (Psalms 19:1 ESV)

Disclaimer: BibleScienceGuy has no control over any advertising that may appear and receives no payment or consideration for it. Ads & “Related” links come from WordPress, not from BibleScienceGuy.