This stunning animation shows why Saturn’s rings are like a ‘mini solar system’

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If star-hopping aliens ever visited our solar system, Saturn is likely the planet they would remember.

The seven gigantic rings orbiting the equator make Saturn the most distinguished planet orbiting the sun. It may not be clear in images of the hula hoop planet, but the ice and rocks that make up those rings orbit Saturn at nearly 70 times the speed of sound. In addition, each ring moves at its own pace.

“In a way, the ring system is like a mini solar system”, James O’Donoghue, a planetary scientist at the Japanese space agency JAXA told Insider.

“Objects close to Saturn are circling faster, otherwise they will fall into it, while objects far away can afford to slow down. This is the same for planets.”

In his spare time O’Donoghue creates animations about physics and the solar system. Some of his others have shown that there is no “dark side” to the moon, the true center of the solar system is not the sun, and the Earth has two kinds of days.

Using his skills to depict Saturn’s rings, O’Donoghue created an animation (below) that shows each ring moving through its own movements in a beautiful, circular dance.

In the animation, the line labeled “synchronous orbit” is synchronized with Saturn’s spin itself, so it shows which parts of the rings you would see over time if you were at that spot on the planet.

Saturn’s slowest outer ring spins about 37,000 mph (16.4 kilometers per second) – slower than Saturn’s own rotation. The inner chunks of ice and rock shoot through space at about 52,000 mph (23.2 kilometers per second).

Up close, Saturn’s rings aren’t as chaotic as their speed might make them seem. According to O’Donoghue, grains of ice on adjacent tracks move only a few centimeters per minute relative to each other.

“That speed is like walking one step every 30 minutes, or comparable to rush hour,” he says said on Twitter. “So collisions are not very dramatic.”

Saturn slowly swallows its rings

In addition to moving incredibly fast, Saturn’s rings are very long and thin. If you unfolded them – as O’Donoghue did in the image below – all the planets would fit comfortably within their length.

605e01266746fb0018a73eb8(James O’Donoghue)

But in total, the rings have only 1 / 5,000th the mass of our moon.

“In other words, our moon can be used to create 5,000 Saturn ring systems,” O’Donoghue told Insider. “This highlights how extremely thin and fragile Saturn’s rings are.”

This vulnerability is a subject of O’Donoghue’s scientific research. While studying Saturn’s upper atmosphere, he and his colleagues found that the rings are slowly disappearing. Thousands of pounds of ring material rain down on the planet every second. At that rate, the rings should not last more than 300 million years in their current “full” shape, he said.

“Saturn’s ring system is not exactly stable and looks more like a temporary debris field from an old moon or comet that got too close and fell apart than a permanent feature,” added O’Donoghue. “We are fortunate to be living at a time when Saturn’s rings are so immense in the solar system.”

This article was originally published by Business Insider.

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