Rings appear only around large planets and yet we recently discovered a ring around an asteroid or dwarf planet. Why? They last longer around large planets and they are more frequent the smaller the planet. So we have two different causes and they are linear in that length of time a ring exists is proportional to the size of the planet and the frequency of rings is inversely proportional to the size of the planet. We are talking about two different things at least the causes are different and each can be graphed as a line. If you superimpose the two lines you will have a point at which the two lines cross and at that point is probably where the size of the planet is roughly similar to earth or the average rocky planet in our solar system. Since one goes down and the other goes up the point where they cross will be where the planets with the least rings are likely to appear.
saturns ring towers
The moon is moving so slowly in relation to the rings that gravity is able to have an effect. They really all move together but gradually they move in relation to each other but not too fast. Gravity has a noticeable effect. Is this the same as the pictures that show what looks like towers perpendicular to the rings? I hope not. I have a theory about those. Maybe the towers are frozen remnants this effect. I think the towers are what happens when the ring solidifies. Once a portion of ring becomes solid it eventually breaks apart. The same phenomena that caused it to pack down hard enough to solidify then causes it to flip perpendicular to the ring plane and become locked into that position. This packing continues until the ring becomes large enough to generate it's own gravity. The gravity will continue to make it thicker till it can no longer maintain it's ringlike shape. ...
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