Elementary Particle Dynamics II Ring Cosmogony

Abstract

As soon as the Saturnian rings had been discovered the problem arose as to how they had originated. The first suggestions about the causes of the existence of the rings have already been touched upon in the Introduction: hypotheses about the capture of cometary tails (Maupertuis), separation of the rings when the planet was compressed (Meran), or the detaching of the rings from a planet because the centrifugal force was too strong (Buffon). We note that all these hypotheses in some way or other solved the problem of the origin of the matter making up the rings but completely ignored the problem of the dynamics: in what respect does the evolution of the matter of the rings differ from the evolution of the matter from which the satellites are formed? Why does the matter of rings remain uniformly spread along the orbit?

Earl of Gloster: “O ruin’d piece of nature! This great world shall so wear out to nought.”

W. Shakespeare, King Lear, Act IV, Scene VI.