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The ring is not a solid piece of material, even though it appears to be in most photographs that we see. Also, the ring is in several sections with gaps between, giving the appearance of several concentric 'rings' or ribbons spreading out around the planet.

The rings are really made of individual chunks of mostly water ice and dust, ranging in size from micrometers to meters in diameter, and there are probably millions of them. Each chunk is in orbit around the planet, and for various technical reasons it appears to be impossible that these chunks will ever come together to form a moon or moons. A more likely fate will be that the orbits of the chunks will eventually decay, sending them crashing into the planet over time. Some of the larger chunks cause perturbations in the orbits of smaller ones nearby, causing what appear to be the gaps between rings.

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14y ago

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