Earth with a Hypothetical Ring System, Video - What it would look like from different locations Options

[Ant103]

Thanks Andy No, actually, I leave the Moon at its actual position, because in my story (I will made the whole translate of it) the Rings are very recent. That's the reason why they can be visible from Moon.
i.e, this view taken from Apollo 8 mission :


This is a real simulation, with the correct illumination, inclination, shadow, etc. Celestia is a wonderful tool for this.

Link to my Celestia add-on : http://www.db-prods.net/blog/wp-content/up...ux-celestia.zip

Floyd, thanks for you support Yes, it seems to be a little un-understoodable. Below, you will find the hot-spot.

A description of the Rings structure. You see that they differs totaly than the Saturn's ring system. 3 big divisions, one big ring.



There are numerous Guardians -moonlets- inside the Rings, to stabilize them. There are 8 and their names are taken from Inca mythology.

- Inti (1832 m), near the edge of ring α;
- Kon (530 m), inside the ring α and who keep in place the biggest part of this ring with Inti ;
- Cocha (1002 m), in the ring α ;
- Pacha (850 m), same ring, at the edge of a small ring ;
- Quilla (480 m), same ring ;
- Pachacamac (1224 m), at the division between ring α et β ;
- Zara (321 m), in the division of Europa ;
- Urcaguary (257 m), in the division of Oceania.

In this article, you will find a picture of the Rings, taken in the late evenning, showing the shadow of the Moon before the total eclipse of the 22th July '09
http://www.db-prods.net/blog/2009/07/22/lo...ur-les-anneaux/

Here, a panoramic view, by night, with the Full Moon :


An other view, at the beggining of the Winter, with the Sun occulted by the Rings (but not totally because some light can travel through it). And it's not the denser ring.


Planetary conjonction in the Rings, at the VLT observatory (picture by Stephane Guisard) :


And one other, from the VLT again, where we can see an eclipse of the Moon.


Hope that this post is not too long to load. I preview it and it seem good.

[Tesheiner]

Now, THAT would be a beautiful planet!

[climber]

It's not too long to load Damien, it's too long to watch.
(Extraordinaire, juste extraordinaire, merci beaucoup)

[Ant103]

Hard time to translate it (I think there are a lot of approximations, etc.).

So, the -my- story of the Rings

-------------------------------
Actually, the Rings are very young in the Earth's story because they appear at the 18th century.

This is at the August 1762 that a large part of mankind assists to brightning increase of a "star". In a few week, this "star" become as shiny as the Moon. Her moving become to be visible. William Herschel calculate that this object is very close to Earth, and also observe that it's unregular. He compute her orbital datas, but can't go to a correct result. Indeed, the object is in orbit around the Earth, but not with a classical orbit. Joseph-Louis Lagrange reveal that actually this object don't move with a sufficent speed to stay in a stable orbit and that she will lead to an impact with the Earth. But King Louis XIV want to avoid riots and he gives order to Lagrange to not unveil his calculation finality. The only official version is the birth of a new moon, who will be named the "Lunoïd" in reason of his lunar deformed aspect.

In February 1763, something unexpectable appends. The Lunoïd is fragmenting in a sort of brilliant cloud. In a few days, he occupy a large part of the celestial equator. This is only at the 18 March of the same year that the "cloud" take a whole tour around the Earth.

At the astronomers, we can't really understood what appens. We imagine that the Lunoïd pass through a place where the object are broken. But the mechanism keeps its secret.

Months after months, and the "Lunoïd Cloud" (his name) become to be more and more smooth. Dark trails appear in some place, and other, more clear.

In a few years, the structure take the aspect of a true ring system circling the whole planet, on the equator plane. This is after all how they will be called : the Rings.

The paralle will be do with the observation of Saturn who show what it seems to be a system of rings.

Very thins structures are fastly observed at the beggining of the 19the century. But no evolution are constated.

The big rings are named with the greek alphabetics, started with alphe from the outside edge, to gamma at the inside. The dark divisions are named in function of continent of the known world, with latin nomination. From the outside edge, there is Africa, America, Asia, Europa and Oceania (alphabetical order).

In April 1813 are discovered the first moonlets, the "guardians". They haven't be observed before for unknown reasons. Maybe they've been formed after?

At the end, in 1820, eight guardians are totalised. They will take in 1824 the name of the ring or division they are in. So : Alpha 1, Africa 1, Africa 2, America 1, America 2, Asia 1, Europa 1 and Oceania 1.

This is provisonial names.

The meteorologists of this time observes that the weather is globaly colder that the period before the Rings. Actually, it's not rare to see more important snowfall in winter, and frost continuing to April in the plains. This is due to the shadow of the Rings, who covers annualy a large part of south Europe and north Africa, hidden a part of the Sun and block the heating. By reaction, the summer -very hot- are the show of very intense thunderstorms. This is why the 18 July 1873, a severe tornado hit Paris and make a lot of destructions and human deads. This case stays in the memories and a lot of way fast access were build to the undergrounds who take place under the city, to evacuate the people in case of new storm.

The Big Plains of the youngs United-States are pratically deserted because of too much thunderstorms in spring and summer, and the intense cold there is started to October.

This is a little aspect of the impact that the Rings have on the Earth. But, stayed in the historic aspect of the Rings.

Edouard Roche succeed to explain and demonstrate in 1850 the rôle of the tides for the dislocation of the Lunoïd. According to him, gravitationnal force have been so strong that arrived at a certain limit (who have his name since) the satellit was broken in a myriad of parts to form a system of rings.

Writer Jules Verne make dreams for millions of childs (and adults…) with his story "Chase on The Rings" out in 1885.

In 1901, at the occasion of the entrance in 20th century, astronomers decids to named, after some debates, the Guardians in function of Inca divinities. There will be so, in order from the farthest, to the closest : Inti, Kon, Mama Cocha, Mama Pacha, Mama Quilla, Pachacamac, Mama Zara and Urcaguary.

Studies on the Rings rise its apogee in the 1910 years. The instruments become to be more and more powerfull. Camille Flammarion will publish in 1911 a book entierly devoted and regulary re-eddited : The Singing of the Rings. It stays as a reference, nowadays too, especially in illustrations.

The 2 WW stopped a time the Rings study, which took a larg part of astronomical research. There is no doubt that the Earth rings and those of Saturn have a lot of point in common.

The 4th October 1957 was launched the first artificial satellit Spoutnik. This is the start of the space conquest. With 2 targets : explore the Rings and landing on the Moon.

The first target will be reached by the russians the 16th February 1967 with the launch incredibly precise for thise time of a live in Soyouz spacecraft into the Oceania division. Very dangerous game because that the particules composing the Rings can perfore the spacecraft. New success accomplished the 24th April 1967 with the launch of a Soyouz spacecraft through the America division. The event was lived as a true humiliation by American government.

And the drama appends. The 19th October 1967, a false command put a Soyouz spacecraft a few kilometer from its trajectory, and leads it directly in the beta ring. The spacecraft was perfore in a numerous places. The air outflow destabilised the module and lead him to an impact trajectory to Earth, in the South Pacific. The Ring exploration, even if it back beautiful pictures and some new information aboute her structure, was considered as too dangerous. The most important is to go to the Moon. And the 4th January 1968 landed Apollo 9 on the lunuar ground.

Robotics spacecraft are sended with succes on the Guardians ant bring some beautifull pictures of the Rings. One observation was that the particules go through the divisions to go to one ring to one other when a Guardian passage.

Few missions to remember :

- Ring Explorer II (USA), 1971, one orbiter introduce inside the Europa division ;

- Ring Explorer V (USA), 1973, one orbiter introduce inside the Asia division ;

- Koltso 6 (URSS), 1972, one orbiter introduce inside the Oceania division ;

- Pachacamaca 3 (URSS), 1978, one lander on Pachacamac ;

- Guardian Explorer Mission 1&2 (USA), 1983 landed simultanly on Mama Quilla and Mama Pacha to make optical measures of the Rings.

But the exploration of Mars lower the interest in the Rings.

The mission Cassini-Huygens (Europe - USA) in 2004 reveal a structure of the rings of Saturn identic from those of the Earth, but with a tinny detail. They are larger, and have a different composition. The Rings are exclusively rocky with sillicats for a large part, iron and some rare matals, while the rings of Saturne have a huge amount of ice.

[tty]

It has actually been suggested that the Earth had a temporary ring system in the early Oligocene:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v285/...s/285309a0.html

[ngunn]

Fabulous! I never knew that was suggested. How many times might that happen in the history of any planet? Right or wrong, I like it because it is imaginative and triggers interesting trains of thought.

[nprev]

How many times might that happen in the history of any planet?

Planetary orbital evolution is looking more & more like a process operating just below the threshold of utter chaos, so I'm beginning to wonder just how many terrestrial worlds might have large satellites like we do. Think the odds are looking pretty unfavorable right now for Earth-Moon system clones to be widespread.

[ynyralmaen]

A temporary ring system in Earth's past was also suggested in the study I linked to in post 11, above.

[Ant103]

I've made three more pics with the Rings.

One is a view from Rotterdam, where I passed 5 months as an exchange student (a wonderfull city )



The second is view of a gasoline station near my living place, at dawn, with the ring illuminate on the other side :
http://www.db-prods.net/blog/wp-content/up...d-earth-web.jpg

The last is a view of Earth by Rosetta :


Nb : very intersting search about a temporary ring system around earth to explain a global cold temperatures, I never known thing like this .

[Tesheiner]

Beautiful!
However, in the first picture with the full moon I would expect the shadow in the ring not to be so sharp given the indirect illumination from the moon itself.

[Ant103]

Hi !

From my holidays in Dordogne (do you know?), don't forget to read this interesting article of Phil of Badastronomy (not only for my pics, but for his interesting remarks about a hypothetical rings system around Earth).

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastro...rings-of-earth/

[climber]

Hi !
From my holidays in Dordogne (do you know?),

Sure, I'm going to Creuse on friday
Once again Ant, your views of Earth ring system are very inspiring,vraiment merci.

[Ant103]

Hi,

I've made an update of the texture of the Rings for Celestia http://www.db-prods.net/blog/2010/04/02/an...ia-mise-a-jour/
You can download the zip file, there is a read-me in french and english.

And I have to say that my uchrony about a ringed earth will be the basis of my 5th Grade diploma of Design .

[scalbers]

It has actually been suggested that the Earth had a temporary ring system in the early Oligocene:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v285/...s/285309a0.html

Maybe some visualizations can be made using Oligocene landscapes and life forms? Here's an example one could work with:

http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/20...m_hell_2008.php

[Tom Gwilym]

Great images!
I'm just glad we don't have a ring, that would really mess up my deep sky imaging from my already light polluted backyard observatory. Heh!
:-)

http://tegwilym.zenfolio.com/

Tom