Why Does Earth NOT Have Rings? The Roche Limit Explained

[@markmuir7338]

This explanation of tidal forces and the Roche limit really rings with me.

[@ScienceAsylum]

😆

[@sirmongrel511]

It wasn't too big a stretch to follow along.

[@Anklejbiter]

these puns are really starting to fall apart

[@crimzenwoffinden9973]

​@@ScienceAsylumhey I got a question, if space is expanding then what's it expanding into; what is on the outside of space. If it's nothing but space then shouldn't there be an always has been situation on the size of space? Maybe the expansion is just because matter and things hasn't always been around?

[@playgroundchooser]

Woa.... I'm only 41 years old and we didn't know that Neptune had rings when I was born!! 😲 It's easy to forget that science is STILL happening!

[@ScienceAsylum]

Right?! So many things we take for granted now in science are much more recent discoveries than we imagine.

[@Walthanar]

40 yo here and that was my same exact reaction 😂

[@diegofernandez4789]

We were missing you Nick. Please keep uploading great videos as this one.

[@ScienceAsylum]

We've come up with a plan for the second half of the year that should allow for more videos than usual.

[@iamjimgroth]

​@@ScienceAsylum Quality before quantity. That's what I'd prefer anyway. 😅

[@ChinnuWoW]

@@iamjimgroth They always are and will be of great quality.

[@ScienceAsylum]

@@iamjimgroth Don't worry. I'm not saying I'm going to start putting out crap or anything. It's just that not all topics _require_ the same amount of effort or time. I'm trying to be better at knowing when to stop "perfecting" a video (because, at some point, there are diminishing returns and I'm wasting time/effort).

[@iamjimgroth]

@@ScienceAsylum it can even be negative returns if you don't know when to stop. Btw, that rock on the surface analogy was awesome. I've always had a hard time explaining tidal forces, but now I think I can. 😁

[@A3Kr0n]

We have rings of techno rocks orbiting the Earth.

[@blackmewtwo3569]

The satellites?

[@nugboy420]

Lol techno rocks. Boom boom boom chicka chicka

[@Broockle]

@@blackmewtwo3569 The moon is a satellite 🤓

[@lemagicbaguette1917]

@@Broockle did satellite first describe natural bodies or orbiting spacecraft? Serious question, btw

[@Broockle]

@@lemagicbaguette1917 Just anything in Orbit. A falling rock is a satellite until it hits the floor 😆

[@msachin4885]

I'd be cool if you made a video on Saturn's moons. The closer you stare, the more physics you find behind the cosmic beauty

[@Mysoi123]

That beginning Big Bang joke never gets old! 😂

[@ScienceAsylum]

😂

[@KnowBuddiesLP]

I come for the science! I stay for the humor! Actually chuckled when voyager flew by and the "wheeeeeee!". Keep it up and look forward to another 10 years!

[@feynstein1004]

The molecular forces part blew my mind. I was about to ask just that. Thank you for giving us the complete picture, Nick 😊

[@ScienceAsylum]

Yeah, I was reading about it and was, like, "Wait, what?! Weird."

[@feynstein1004]

@@ScienceAsylum Btw I just realized. Tidal forces can also be thought of as a tug of war between the gravity of the planet and the gravity of the satellite. Wait, I'm pretty sure you said something similar in your video on Lagrange points. An object halfway (gravitationally) between the moon and the earth would be equally pulled in both directions and thus remain motionless. It's the same pattern. Except that the object is well, the part of the moon closest to the planet. It's being pulled in two opposite directions: upward toward the planet and downward toward the moon. I was wondering about this apparent contradiction regarding how gravity can tear things apart when it's only attractive. Turns out, when you have different centers of gravity (pun intended), you can get ripped apart if you get caught in the middle. This also explains why once the moon disintegrates into rings, it becomes stable. The orbiting particles no longer have self-gravity and thus there is nothing to oppose the gravitational pull of the planet. Hmm but wait. If self-gravity is the cause of tidal force, then how can people get spaghettified near black holes? People aren't held together by their own gravity 🤔

[@odysseus9672]

Fantastic video. I had only ever heard of the rigid Roche limit before, so it was really interesting to hear about the elastic limit.

[@iammrbeat]

This video rings so true. Maybe if Mars finally proposed to Earth it'd finally have a ring.

[@ScienceAsylum]

😂

[@rayoflight62]

Very good explanation of planetary rings, satellites, and the working of the Roche limit. The details of Saturn Ring gatekeepers is an important detail added to the lecture. Thanks, Anthony

[@KevinCombs1980]

Always a highlight of the day when there's a new science asylum video! Thank you for what you do sir!

[@harthur2010]

Great video. I didn’t know before that Saturn’s rings will disappear one day. Love the videos with the time line. Also quite liked the voyager sound effect 😊

[@paradox7358]

Can you imagine the night sky with rings? Not like I could see it anyway with all the light pollution. I'm lucky if I see a star!

[@ScienceAsylum]

If you can see the Moon, then you could see the rings. During the day, even!

[@whoeveriam0iam14222]

can you imagine space travel with bands of debris around the equator

[@davidvavra9113]

I live under the clouds west of Seattle, the stars are a myth

[@ScienceAsylum]

@@davidvavra9113 😆

[@tobiasengel8385]

You sir are amazing, kid-friendly, immersive content, and highly educational. Thank you! I'm now subscribed

[@ScienceAsylum]

I'm glad you found the channel! Welcome 🤓

[@LuneLovehearn]

Hey Nick. What if you consider a system where a planet like earth has rings but has moons that keep it in check like Saturn. That would be a cool follow up video topic. Also the rings could be pale compared to Saturn unless the rings are formed from a material similar to the moon soil.

[@Broockle]

I think a better question to address this curiosity would be; what if Saturn and all it's orbital objects (moons and rings) were scaled down to earth's size. Would the orbits still function the same? I would think the rings would be much shorter lived in that case.

[@kingmasterlord]

so we start capturing near-earth asteroids, mine the metals out, and put the rest in the LaGrange points and _make_ some

[@rythenx]

I missed this video when it got uploaded but just heard you mention it in your recent video about KZbin changes so I went back to watch it and I agree, this video is great. I hope you will be able to stay motivated (both financially and personally) to keep making videos like this one, especially cause you said you enjoyed making this one in particular.

[@ScienceAsylum]

Thanks for the confirmation 🤓

[@Poor.and.Bruised.of.Spirit]

Your channel is reminiscent of me watching Bill Nye The Science Guy as a youth. Though I appreciate your videos much more. Thank you for taking complex subjects and making them understandable for us simpletons.

[@n4whhdb]

I'm watching this for the second time. Love the use of the timeline. Great content!

[@ScienceAsylum]

Glad you enjoyed it! 🤓

[@MultiDudeman]

Love the majors mask reference! 😄 great video 👍

[@ScienceAsylum]

Thanks!

[@arbodox]

As usual, awesome video with your clear explanations! What do you think is going on with Quaoar's recently-discovered rings, which orbit outside of its Roche limit?

[@ScienceAsylum]

There could be several reasons. Most of Saturn's rings are outside their Roche limit, but Saturn has those Shepherd moons to help keep things in place. Also, collisions can cause rings. It doesn't have be tidal disruption (like with Phobos). So it's possible a couple large rocks collided near Quaoar and we just happened to catch the rings while they're still there.

[@anoimo9013]

Amazing video. 6:20 deformation also affects selfgravty forces seen form the surface

[@ScienceAsylum]

Good point.

[@CT-pi2gl]

I think it's cool how you use the comic sans or similarly loose font for the mathematical expressions. It makes it more approachable, and like someone just scrawled it down in the middle of doing an experiment.

[@ScienceAsylum]

I _really_ like the math font I use, but it drives some people crazy. Apparently, people have different preferences. Who knew? 😉

[@gabrielgoldwoulfe2277]

Majora's Mask lol Creepy AF got me! Also Enceladus feeds Saturns rings with water/ice eruptions constantly.

[@ZohaibKhan-mr7uy]

Please do a video on the spin of particles why fermions have 1/2h spin and boson have 0 or 1,2h etc. Your explanation is phenomenal. Thanks

[@Yezpahr]

3:14 LOL... It took me about 10 seconds before I understood all the layers of that statement.

[@peterp-a-n4743]

super interesting! great explanations!

[@ScienceAsylum]

Glad you liked it 🤓

[@artificercreator]

The roche limit! It sounds cool!

[@LTMarhman]

Your vids are wicked awesome! 😅

[@ScienceAsylum]

😆 Thanks!

[@KeithCooper-Albuquerque]

Excellent video!

[@ScienceAsylum]

Thanks!

[@pixelpatter01]

The downside of rings around Earth would be the reflected light providing extra heating on some portions of the globe and shadows on other portions. It would sure complicate our seasons or at least accentuate them. I'd love to hear you discuss that situation.

[@qevvy]

While I'm not a big fan of geoengineering solutions to global warming, I'd totally get behind an artificial Earth ring system as a sun shade just for the spectacle of the thing. 😄

[@MidnighterClub]

Cool explanation of Roche limit!

[@ScienceAsylum]

Glad you liked it! 🤓

[@fozzsr]

Particularly good yuks this round buddy, nice. 😁👍

[@ScienceAsylum]

Thanks 👍

[@AloisMahdal]

The 10:00 length of this video made me feel nostalgia

[@ScienceAsylum]

I didn't do it on purpose. It just kind of... happened.

[@maxisalamone]

I love this channel, keep up the good work Nick!

[@ScienceAsylum]

Thanks! Will do! 🤓

[@RikR1958]

as always, brilliant educational video!

[@_folinks]

Loved the majora's mask reference there, keep up the good work

[@TheOblomoff]

I only knew planetary rings existed, not their nature. Turns out the explanation is surprisingly simple. And yes, it would be; the distances aren't cosmology-big. :)

[@nokian9005]

I have a theory. I think KZbin knows you're one of my favorite creators. That's why it usually waits a day or two to show me your videos when they get posted, because the algorithm is trying to check to see how quickly I find out about your video on my own before recommending it to me. KZbin uses people like me as guinea pigs to gauge what to do with the metric count. But anyways, all theories aside- this is a good upload! I've always been fascinated by rings. I remember being a kid and swearing that I saw a planet with rings in the sky when stargazing once. As an adult I can't make out the rings anymore, but at least I can recognize Saturn and Jupiter sometimes. ☺️

[@Benson_aka_devils_advocate_88]

Makes you wonder if our moon had a major impact that makes a temporary ring structure, which in turn would block a ton of sunlight, plunging us into an ice age...

[@cyrilio]

This might explain the ‘great dying’. Besides a gamma ray burst I don’t think there are any good hypotheses for the cause.

[@Benson_aka_devils_advocate_88]

@@cyrilio I would think there may be traces of it in the geologic record. But has anyone taken a look? That's what popped into my mind.

[@xx_redwood_xx9737]

Lunar rings wouldn't block out the Sun any more than the Moon already does (barring eclipses), unless they were absurdly huge.

[@guyxmas7519]

Such awesomeness in this video!

[@ScienceAsylum]

Thanks! 🤓

I love Your channel, mate!

[@JanStrojil]

Coming back to rewatch, like and comment. Let’s boost the algorithm.

[@jamesdriscoll_tmp1515]

A Hill sphere talk would be a cool topic, maybe part of a basic orbital mechanics series. Do you play KSP?

[@ScienceAsylum]

I considered making Hill spheres a side note in this video, but decided it should be its own video. (No, I've never used KSP.)

[@williamschrom1584]

Appreciate the humor... keep it up

[@ScienceAsylum]

Thanks!

[@scottperry9581]

An electron is speeding down the highway and gets stopped by a traffic cop. "Do you know how fast you were going?" asked the cop. "I have no idea." replied the electron. "You were going 98 miles per hour." said the cop. "Great! Now I am lost!" complained the elctron.

[@agargamer6759]

Nice video, I didn't know that Galileo had such a crude picture of the rings with his telescope

[@ScienceAsylum]

Yep! I felt like that was an important historical detail. By giving all the credit to Galileo, we miss out on how knowledge is gained _incrementally._

[@0-by-1_Publishing_LLC]

Very entertaining video - as usual. ... You're dancing _rings_ around the other channels!

[@suranjanroy7528]

Loved it.

[@jamesdriscoll_tmp1515]

Orbital resonance is another cool phenomena.

[@ScienceAsylum]

True! But I don't think any video I make about it would be better than Steve Mould's video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/h6rRZ2eYabGBgJI

[@Castellano365]

Is that one of Nicole's @SoundoftheForest "It's a fancy bag" shirts?👀

[@ScienceAsylum]

Yep! That's exactly what it is 🙂

[@LendriMujina]

I like the story about how Galileo tried to communicate his discovery of Saturn's rings to Kepler through a coded message, only for Kepler to get it wrong and mistakenly read it as his discovering Mars having two moons.

[@josmeproslonije724]

Liked the video just cause of the Majora's Mask reference! 10/10

[@AlexandarHullRichter]

I think people picture moons as being solid chunks of rock that you could throw at something and have them not break apart, like a small piece of granite. It's much more realistic to see moons as collections of small rocks and dirt that are only held together in the first place by self-gravity. After all, that's what the surface of the Earth is in most places. There's nothing keeping dirt, sand, hills, mountains, oceans, etc. on the ground, except that they're heavy and the Earth has self-gravity.

[@kevingalls]

Loved this and it’s a good explanation, but didn’t get into what happens if the body passes quickly through the Roche limit such as an asteroid with an orbital trajectory intercepting Earth. In this scenario it may not break up, and even if it slightly disintegrated, all of the mass would still smash into Earth. As another example, let’s say a huge asteroid collided with the moon with enough force and the perfect angle so as to stop the moon from orbiting Earth. So if the moon was stationary with respect to Earth and started falling into the gravity well of Earth, would it break up? I mean, it wouldn’t matter because we’d still die but I do wonder… 🤔

[@sol_mental]

So. Cool. This is awesome and I do want to one day visit Saturn's rings

[@OrdenJust]

Excellent pronunciation of "Huygens"! I've been saying it wrong lo these many years.

[@ScienceAsylum]

Thanks! Someone corrected me on it years ago and I've said it this way ever since.

[@petersage5157]

Nick: "I'm going to exaggerate sizes...which is something I've never, ever done before." Emily: ...

[@ScienceAsylum]

😂

[@alhypo]

Someday soon we might have artificial rings around Earth... once a few satellites collide and their debris start a chain reaction. 😨

[@mrdraw2087]

What makes the rings decay? The collisions between the particles?

[@ScienceAsylum]

A planetary ring is a "many-body problem." Those are notoriously unstable because everything is tugging on everything else.

[@JohnDoe-lt4kl]

It's OK to exaggerate sizes for clarity, as long as this does not come across as a stretch. And, by the way, Earth used to have rings (and hobbits)...

[@ScienceAsylum]

Keep it secret, keep it safe.

[@BrycetheyoungAstronomer]

I agreed with you I love Saturn too. Saturn is not only planet in the solar system has rings, but Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune does has rings too. I do love space a lot. It part of my dream come true. I also love Jupiter also. Jupiter is the king of planets.

[@alexcunhapinto]

I just can't stop loving you.

[@Casa-de-hongos]

Only found out about this video, because of the rant in the other one. Even though I watched all your videos for years, youtube really thought this one won't be my taste.

[@ScienceAsylum]

The algorithm doesn't always make the best choices... at least not what's best for either of us anyway.

[@alexvilonyay8597]

Great video as always! I'm curious if that limit would exist for a star? Crazy for life!

[@KohuGaly]

Yes, it is even mentioned in the video when he mentions the comet.

[@Eoraph]

so basically, the moon gets spaghettified and this is the same process that makes accretion disks out of stars around black Holes.

[@ScienceAsylum]

Yep. The black hole version is just more extreme.

[@billyyank2198]

The story of how the rings of Uranus were discovered is quite fascinating.

[@ScienceAsylum]

😆

[@Chad_Thundercock]

They say if you cut a planet in half and count the rings, you can tell how old it is.

[@ScienceAsylum]

😂

[@on1yadam]

😂😂😂😂😂

[@misterlau5246]

Doctor Lucid! Long time no see! Before I watch your video.. No rings here, just you wait till we get enough basura espacial allá arriba

[@ScienceAsylum]

I took a little vacation after my live stream last month. Should be back in action now though.

[@UrsusSuperior44]

Before watching: in part likely both figuratively and literally, in your nearby jewelry store, mined refined cast shaped and shined

[@dblaze23]

5:19 why does that rock starts revolving around planet instead of falling straight (directly) into it

[@nerobernardino88]

Because it was already revolving around the planet, the moon is already revolving around the planet.

[@ScienceAsylum]

Technically, it takes 10s of millions of years. Think of it like a time lapse: one picture every time the moon gets back to that spot in its orbit.

[@UtraVioletDreams]

0:19 Well if we continue to dump lots of debris in space, we will get our ring eventually.

[@underwatermoon]

Great Video! Just wanted to add that rings don’t necessarily have to form from mass being within the Roche limit. Take the E-ring of Saturn for example. This ring is made by a moon of Saturn, Enceladus, spewing large amounts of water from its geysers on the south pole into space. This creates a ring only visible when backlit by the sun, it is however still a ring, and a pretty big one at that! Quaoar, the briefly mentioned dwarf planet, has it’s rings well outside of it’s Roche limit, meaning the cause of the rings cant be explained with the Roche limit. The formation of the rings are still being disputed!

[@ScienceAsylum]

Yeah, I actually put a list on the screen at 2:07

[@underwatermoon]

@@ScienceAsylum oh, sorry. It seems like i missed that…

[@ScienceAsylum]

@@underwatermoon Understandable. It was a very brief side note. Easy to miss.

[@Muladeseis]

This made me remember one of your videos called "One Side of the Moon ALWAYS Faces Us. Why is that? | Tidal Locking". I made there a question, if that tidal locking has any relationship with the Moon moving away from the Earth? I hope you could help me answering that, thank you!

[@KohuGaly]

Yes it does. The process of tidal locking transfers energy from rotation of the body to the orbital energy. Basically, the tides caused by the moon deform the shape of the earth. As the earth rotates, the deformations "drag" the moon gravitationally. This causes the moon to gain orbital angular momentum and earth loose rotational angular momentum. For moon, this process is already finished (it's tidally locked). For earth the process is still happening.

[@jamesmnguyen]

And since the Earth spins faster than the Moon's orbit, energy is transferred to the Moon causing its orbit to increase in energy (go higher in orbit). Eventually the Moon and the Earth will rotate at the same rate (freezing the moon in the sky). Although this will take longer than the age of our Sun so don't get excited.

[@Muladeseis]

@@KohuGaly wow, very interesting, thanks for your answer! And I hope that we have ever a video on that topic here in the channel.

[@GlenHunt]

Did I click like before watching, or did I watch it backwards and then click like? Which way did t go?? Also, "to the timeline!!"

[@viralsheddingzombie5324]

Never walk up to a stranger and say: "I love the rings around Uranus."

[@danielbickford3458]

I actually had that happen in Middle School. One of my classmates asked my teacher why is Uranus so big? Why Uranus have rings around it? Why is Uranus blue? You can guess exactly how he pronounced that. My teacher was less than amused. If I recall correctly she sent him to the principal's office

[@fep_ptcp883]

But Uranus needs to be more explored and studied

[@bobthetrashcollector]

I feel like Cody's lab is playing in the next room the entire time

[@paulozhang1340]

The crazy guy on the left side is more genuine to me 😂

[@GMPranav]

It feels like rings would be more interesting, but honestly if we got used to seeing rings, we would complain we dont have a moon while pther planets do.

[@KohuGaly]

One interesting fact about rings is that if earth had them, it would be plainly obvious by the naked eye that earth is a sphere. You could literally see its round shadow on the rings at night.

[@Lucky-df8uz]

This video was brilliant, pun intended.

[@ScienceAsylum]

😂

[@deeprecce9852]

We are creating so much space debris, who knows we may hv a visible ring someday!

[@horizonbrave1533]

LOl I never exaggerate size for clarity... haha, the stuff you slide in to these talks is scandalous nick! 😂😂

[@ScienceAsylum]

😂

[@n4whhdb]

Exaggerating sizes for clarity sometimes leads to scale envy. 😅

[@KekusMagnus]

given how old planets are and how short-lived rings are, it's not easy to imagine Jupiter at some point in time having massive rings, much bigger than Jupiter. Now that would be cool

[@Zerokey0]

I wonder: How fast would a moon be destroyed when getting "too close" ? (How long [time] would the destruction take?) I guess the fear of asteroids hitting earth is real, so "rushing" through the "destruction zone" is obviously possible. But how "slow" would you need to be (to be crushed into rings)? I guess it depends also on the size of the object? Or does it cancel out?

[@Splarkszter]

there is a game that can more or less let you visualize that sort of stuff, it's called universe sandbox. it's just math so googling and calculating the ecuation is also valid.

[@svachalek]

I think that case is more about angle than speed. If it's straight on colliding, it won't go into orbit and won't create a ring or moon. But if not going straight into us and it's slow enough to get captured, it would end up in orbit and then how close that orbit is decides ring vs moon.

[@restaurantlafamilia]

2:39 that planet was called Theia when that happened

[@stevengeorges9046]

Can you imagine how hard it would be to have stable orbiting satellites if we had rings around earth?

[@ScienceAsylum]

Ok, so maybe there would be practical problems.

[@harrisonbraun4499]

Yes! More space!

[@jednye3348]

It would be cool to see if we made our own rings for storage of resources like water and minerals for space based production and also for the beautiful night sky's we would see here on earth

[@JavedAli-ik6ux]

why dont you make cover spintronics? I request you to cover some topics like what are spin currents, spin to charge current conversion, quantum spin hall effect, ISHE etc

[@jeremycraft8452]

3:17 Nick challenges M for the title of Awkward.

[@laz7354]

👍 for the Majora's Mask reference! 🌚

[@kafuuchino3236]

I'd like to know more about these "unstable orbits" that destroy rings over time! Do they fall into the planet at the inner edge, drift off into space at the outer edge, or evaporate from both ends? And what's the mechanism that causes it?

[@KohuGaly]

It's caused by atmospheric drag and from random collisions/flybys causing changes of orbits of individual particles.

[@angeleav]

Slow falls in, fast floats out

[@KyanoAng3l0_Mtvtks]

Came back to this video after reading about a recent (2024) study suggesting that Earth may have had a ring back in the Ordovician, when an asteroid got close enough to Earth to break apart and turn into one. This ring system may have lasted for almost 40M years before crashing down, which could've been the Ordovician impact spike. The meteorites being once a ring could explain the unique distribution of the craters in the equator. The shading by the ring could've also caused the early Paleozoic ice age. No definitive proof yet, but an interesting theory nonetheless.

[@Gary-zq3pz]

We built ours one satellite at a time, the first ring scrunched into the moon. Ours is there, but it's not much at all. Our satellites are way cooler than a little bit of dust and gravel(all that's left).

[@traywor]

I heard that the moon could still create rings though. Since it is drifting apart, it could either leave orbit, or get ripped apart. What's that all about? Is what I've heard wrong?

[@Douglas_Blake_579]

Where are Earth's rings? We're building them now with all the stuff we've put into low Earch Orbit.

[@LuneLovehearn]

We may get things but may from debris of space junk one day, unless they decide to make orbital station rings as launchpads for deep space. It's a mega structure project

[@harshalshah4685]

Kessler: "working on it"

[@on1yadam]

3:18 yep, that's what she said lol