In our solar system, planetary rings are found around all the giant planets, showing spectacular variety. Jupiter's thin ring system is composed mostly of dust. Saturn's rings are the largest and best studied, and the target of the NASA/ESA Cassini space mission that will begin orbiting Saturn in 2004. Its ring system consists of the broad A and B rings (separated by the Cassini Division) and the optically thinner C and D rings. Outside the main rings are the narrow `braided' F ring and rings E and G. Uranus has ten narrow, sometimes eccentric rings and a family of dust bands. Neptune has three distinct rings (Galle, LeVervier, and Adams); the outermost Adams ring is patchy, with the thicker segments termed `arcs.' All the ring systems have moons interspersed, which sculpt, collect, and release ring material. Moons are the likely parents of the present rings, ground down by meteorites and destroyed randomly to produce the relatively short-lived ring systems. Thus, we observe the natural stochastic results of birth and death processes when we examine the rings closely. Ring systems are relatively nearby and provide a natural laboratory for phenomena in flattened disks, including the nebula around our Sun that gave rise to the planets. Cassini will observe Saturn's rings and the numerous physical phenomena occurring within them close-up from 2004 to 2008, refining and possibly redefining our view of ring physics.

The origin of Saturn's rings has not been adequately explained. The current rings are more than 90 to 95 per cent water ice, which implies that initially they were almost pure ice because they are continually polluted by rocky meteoroids. In contrast, a half-rock, half-ice mixture (similar to the composition of many of the satellites in the outer Solar System) would generally be expected. Previous ring origin theories invoke the collisional disruption of a small moon, or the tidal disruption of a comet during a close passage by Saturn. These models are improbable and/or struggle to account for basic properties of the rings, including their icy composition. Saturn has only one large satellite, Titan, whereas Jupiter has four large satellites; additional large satellites probably existed originally but were lost as they spiralled into Saturn. Here I report numerical simulations of the tidal removal of mass from a differentiated, Titan-sized satellite as it migrates inward towards Saturn. Planetary tidal forces preferentially strip material from the satellite's outer icy layers, while its rocky core remains intact and is lost to collision with the planet. The result is a pure ice ring much more massive than Saturn's current rings. As the ring evolves, its mass decreases and icy moons are spawned from its outer edge with estimated masses consistent with Saturn's ice-rich moons interior to and including Tethys.

We have conducted an intensive search for any material that may orbit Rhea, using images obtained by the Cassini ISS narrow-angle camera. We find no evidence for any such material, contradicting an earlier and surprising inference that Rhea, the second-largest moon of Saturn, possesses a system of narrow rings embedded in a broad circum-satellite disk or cloud (Jones et al. 2008, Science). If one accepts the calculations of the previous authors, our results would require any narrow rings around Rhea to be composed of objects no smaller than 10 meters in radius, in order to be massive enough to account for the observed charged-particle absorptions but diffuse enough to evade detection in our images. Such a particle-size distribution is unrealistic given that erosion processes will break down 10-meter objects to smaller sizes, which would then have been seen in our images. Furthermore, Jones et al. (2008) assumed that the absorption of electrons by hypothetical circum-Rhea particles is proportional to the volume of the particles, even when they are much larger than the electron penetration depth (van Allen 1983, 1987, JGR). If we assume instead that large particles can only absorb electrons efficiently near their surfaces, then our results rule out any solid material orbiting Rhea as the explanation for the absorptions detected by Jones et al. (2008), regardless of particle size, by a margin of four (for narrow rings) or two (for a broad diffuse cloud) orders of magnitude. We conclude that the anomalous electron absorptions reported by Jones et al. (2008) are the signature of a new and hitherto unknown magnetospheric process.

Rings Of Power vs. House Of The Dragon: Nielsen releases first head-to-head ratings numbers

Images acquired of Saturn's rings and small moons by the Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) during the first 9 months of Cassini operations at Saturn have produced many new findings. These include new saturnian moons; refined orbits of new and previously known moons; narrow diffuse rings in the F-ring region and embedded in gaps within the main rings; exceptionally fine-scale ring structure in moderate- to high-optical depth regions; new estimates for the masses of ring-region moons, as well as ring particle properties in the Cassini division, derived from the analysis of linear density waves; ring particle albedos in select ring regions; and never-before-seen phenomena within the rings.

The minor planet and centaur 10199 Chariklo, with a diameter of about 250 kilometres (160 mi), is the smallest celestial object with confirmed rings and the fifth ringed celestial object discovered in the Solar System, after the gas giants and ice giants. Orbiting Chariklo is a bright ring system consisting of two narrow and dense bands, 6–7 km (4 mi) and 2–4 km (2 mi) wide, separated by a gap of 9 kilometres (6 mi). The rings orbit at distances of about 400 kilometres (250 mi) from the centre of Chariklo, a thousandth the distance between Earth and the Moon. The discovery was made by a team of astronomers using ten telescopes at various locations in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay in South America during observation of a stellar occultation on 3 June 2013, and was announced on 26 March 2014.The existence of a ring system around a minor planet was unexpected because it had been thought that rings could only be stable around much more massive bodies. Ring systems around minor bodies had not previously been discovered despite the search for them through direct imaging and stellar occultation techniques. Chariklo's rings should disperse over a period of at most a few million...

Tom Brady padded his record in Super Bowl 56. Here's a look at current and former NFL players with the most championship rings all time. Hint: Ex-49ers and Steelers frequent the list.

The Lord of the Rings is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book The Hobbit, but eventually developed into a much larger work. Written in stages between 1937 and 1949, The Lord of the Rings is one of the best-selling books ever written, with over 150 million copies sold.The title refers to the story's main antagonist, the Dark Lord Sauron, who, in an earlier age, created the One Ring to rule the other Rings of Power given to Men, Dwarves, and Elves, in his campaign to conquer all of Middle-earth. From homely beginnings in the Shire, a hobbit land reminiscent of the English countryside, the story ranges across Middle-earth, following the quest to destroy the One Ring, seen mainly through the eyes of the hobbits Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin. Aiding Frodo are the Wizard Gandalf, the Man Aragorn, the Elf Legolas, and the Dwarf Gimli, who unite in order to rally the Free Peoples of Middle-earth against Sauron's armies and...

Fried Onion Rings Recipe - Fried Onion Rings:A delicious tea-time snack, very easy and quick to prepare. Perfect pick for a quick snack when unexpected guests arrive and is good for those who like fried food. An amazing pick for kids and may be packed for picnics too, can also be served as evening snacks or just as a side dish during dinner parties.