Question: What creates the ring around Saturn?

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  1. There are a couple of theories. One is that it was a moon that was destroyed by gravitational tidal forces ripping it apart or a big impact with another object. The second is that is is simply left over material from when Saturn first formed. It is mostly made of ice I think.

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  2. No idea.

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  3. Great question! We think that the rings are made up of a combination of things. One idea is that they contain the leftover remnants of the formation of Saturn, and another is that they are a destroyed icy moon.

    At least one of the rings (called the E-ring) is very possibly the result of a giant geyser coming from the moon Enceladus (see http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Enceladus).

    Several small moons are believed to “shepherd” the ice, gas and dust into their familiar ring appearance. We don’t fully understand how this works though!

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  4. I had no idea until I read the Matthew & Simon’s answers

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