why saturn has a bigger ring?

Question

i read an article about Jupiter on a pop-sci magazine today. it says Jupiter has a ring too, just very faint. it also says Jupiter has more gravity and mass than all other 7 planets. Jupiter has been called the solar system's vacuum cleaner, because of its immense gravity well and location near the inner solar system. It receives the most frequent comet impacts of the solar system's planetsits gravity.
i am just kinda wonder, if Jupiter has that immense gravity, shouldnt it attract more rocks and make a bigger ring? how come it has a smaller ring than Saturn?

Answer 1

I see that hm3feronat is plagiarizing my answer. I've seen other people plagiarizing too, on other questions. I guess it's time to discontinue participating in these forums.

Here's my post
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My belief is that time is a major factor here. Jupiter might have had Saturn sized rings at some point in its history. 5 billion years for our solar system is a long time. I don't think Saturn's rings are "indefinitely stable" as in they will be around 500 million or a billion years from now.

So partly it depends on "what's cracking up in the neighborhood" and how stable the result is. Current theory has it, for example, that after the Earth/Moon collision Earth would have been ringed. The interesting thing about this variant is that the theory holds the ring would have disappeared after a few *weeks.* The material would have fallen back to Earth and also coalesced into the modern moon. But ringed we were, according to that theory.

So, for my money, I would not bet on the stability of the Saturnian ring system, and I would not rule out Saturn style rings at some other point in the other planets' histories. What is left around Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune may be vestigial remnants OR it might just be that the "small ring systems" were originally fed by smaller events, such as disintegrations of smaller bodies under the tidal forces of the various gas giants.

It certainly requires a shift in our thinking to factor in time on geologic and astronomical scales. The storm on Jupiter, the Great Red Spot, has existed since telescopes were first able to see it in the 17th century. That doesn't mean it is normal to have a Great Red Spot. Maybe the Great Red Spot is, for example, a 10,000 year event and we're 1/3 of the way through. Aside from atmospheric models, we have no way of knowing.

The same could apply to Saturn's rings. I would not hazard whether Saturn's rings are stable on the level of thousands of years or millions of years, but I would bet that they won't be stable over a billion years.

hope that helps,

GN

Answer 2

probably because Saturn has less moons that Jupiter, so these rocks get into orbit easier where as in Jupiter it will collide with another moon or even as you said the gravity of Jupiter is a lot stronger, so any object close enough will be more likely sucked in rather than orbiting it. another reason is probably because Saturn had those rings from the beginning, maybe like the asteroid belt between Jupiter and mars, its part of an unfinished moon where all the rock have been kept apart from the gravity from Saturn or its moons. or even a better explanation would be, maybe Jupiter does attract more of these rocks, that's why it has more moons and bigger moons that other planets. these rocks have been turned into moons over time. that is a very good question though, a star from me.

Answer 3

Because Jupiter's mass is so great, any dust or small rocks that come nearby are either pulled onto Jupiter itself or impact one of Jupiter's large moons.
Saturn's gravity is less, and Saturn has a large number of small moons close to it - it is theorized that much of the ring material (dust and small rocks) is replenished by meteor impacts on those small moons, blasting material off the moons and into orbit around Saturn.

Uranus and Neptune also have small ring systems like Jupiter.
It would appear that Saturn is just lucky enough to be a "goldilocks" world - its gravity and size is just right to form such a glorious ring system.

Answer 4

It's a good question. Some of Saturnain moons have something to do with the rings. They apparently keep them in order, much as dogs keep sheep in order. The main Jupiter moons are rather large, and would clean out the ring. PS= Uranus and Neptune also have rings.

Answer 5

I'll have to hold my tongue on this one...

Answer 6

We don't know why. Period.