Introduction

What if Earth had rings like Saturn? Would the temperature be different than usual? Will time change? You will figure out right now. According to the Giant-Impact Hypothesis, Earth might have had its own rings around 4.5 billion years ago. A planet, non-existent today, named Theia, collided with Earth. This collision caused a rocket of matter into earth’s orbit, which formed a ring.

Saturn

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant nine times the size of Earth. It is made out of helium, hydrogen, methane, and ammonia. Its rings are made up of billions of pieces of ice, dust, and rocks. It has a big Roche limit, since it has a lot of gravity.

What If The Earth Had Rings?

The view from Earth varies, and it depends on your latitude and which direction you’re facing. From the Equator, the rings would be passing directly overhead. Since you’d been looking in the same plane as the rings, all you would see is a bright line. If you travel just a little north to Guatemala from the Equator, the rings began to spread across the sky. The Earth light shining on the dark side of the moon is many times brighter than we are familiar to, due to the increased sunlight being reflected from the rings. Then, if we move somewhere like Polynesia at 23 degrees south latitude, a 180-degree panorama gives an idea of what a beautiful sight the rings would be. The dark oval shaped break in the middle of the ring is the Earth’s shadow. During the course of every night, you would be able to watch the Earth’s shadow flow across the rings.