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Ring system

"Planet ring" redirects here. For other uses, see Planet Ring.
For ring systems in chemistry, see Ring system (chemistry).
The moons Prometheus (right) and Pandora (left) orbit just inside and outside, respectively, the F ring of Saturn, but only Prometheus is thought to function as a shepherd moon.

A ring system is a disc or torus orbiting an astronomical object that is composed of solid material such as gas, dust, meteoroids, planetoids or moonlets and stellar objects.

Ring systems are best known as planetary rings, common components of satellite systems around giant planets such as of Saturn, or circumplanetary disks. But they can also be galactic rings and circumstellar discs, belts of planetoids, such as the asteroid belt or Kuiper belt, or rings of interplanetary dust, such as around the Sun at distances of Mercury, Venus, and Earth, in mean motion resonance with these planets.[1][2][3] Evidence suggests that ring systems may also be found around other types of astronomical objects, including moons and brown dwarfs.

In the Solar System, all four giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) have ring systems. Ring systems around minor planets have also been discovered via occultations. Some studies even theorize that the Earth may have had a ring system during the mid-late Ordovician period.[4]

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