Not a single satellite of a planet in the solar system has rings.. But scientists have found that such rings could be created and could be stable for a million years, even if they were influenced by the gravity of neighboring objects. That is, the Moon and other spherical satellites could have rings, but then they disappeared. Scientists have figured out how this could happen. The study was published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, writes Live Science.

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The most famous planet in the solar system that has rings is Saturn. But Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune also have rings, although they are not so visible. These rings consist of pieces of ice and rocks of different sizes and their stability is maintained by the gravity of the so-called shepherd moons that the above four planets have.

Scientists also discovered that some centaurs, that is, asteroids located beyond Jupiter, as well as some dwarf planets have rings. But scientists have never discovered rings that would surround at least one known satellite of the planets of the solar system.

The authors of the study believe that the physical processes that create rings can theoretically occur both on planets and on their satellites. The rings may be created from rocky debris ejected from the surface of the satellite as a result of an asteroid impact, or from chunks of ice ejected by cryovolcanoes. Over time, such debris should form a ring under the influence of the satellite’s gravity. Many planetary satellites have cryovolcanoes and have also been subjected to strong asteroid impacts, but they do not have rings.

Scientists decided to find out whether the rings of planetary satellites can generally be stable, that is, not collapse for a very long period of time.. Preliminary results showed that moons may have stable rings, but scientists did not take into account the gravitational influence of other moons and planets.

The study's authors then selected five sets of spherical satellites and their planets, including the Earth and the Moon.. In the simulation, each satellite received rings. The results showed that such rings, even under the influence of the gravity of neighboring satellites and planets, can remain stable for a million years. Simulations show that even the Moon could have stable rings similar to Saturn's. That is, the gravitational influence of neighboring objects over a very long period of time did not destroy these rings, according to the study.

If the satellites of the planets had rings in the distant past, then where did they all disappear Scientists believe that the cause of the destruction of these rings could be the influence of solar radiation, as well as charged particles from the magnetic fields of the planets. On the other hand, there is a possibility that the rings were destroyed by the gravity of the satellites themselves, which had ring systems around them.

It turns out that if the Moon did have rings, then the fragments that made them fell to the surface of the Earth’s satellite a long time ago. And this could also happen with other satellites of the planets of the solar system.

As Focus already wrote, something invisible and “blurry”, thousands of light years in size, is hiding in the center of the Milky Way. Study suggests galactic cores may not be made of what we thought.

Focus also wrote about how the ISS can resist Earth’s gravity, rotate around our planet and not fall down.