Why Do All Planetary Rings Follow This Elegant Mathematical Law?

maths can be incredibly beautiful , and in young research on world-wide rings , it prove its grandeur once again .

An external team of researchers has find that the distribution of junk size of it inSaturn ’s ringsis not unique to the flatulency giant , but likely   general to all planets , and follows a natural law of reverse cubes . And the scientists   also think that they have solve the mystery of why this happens , and in particular   why   there is a sharp drop in the abundance of ice and junk debris in the rings as it grows in sizing . The research is published in the journalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ( PNAS ) .

Creating a mathematical model of ring debris distribution , the scientist plant that particles two meters ( 6.6 feet ) in size of it were   eight times less abundant than those one meter ( 3.3 feet ) in size .   Three - beat - sized ( 10 feet ) particles were 27 times less abundant , and so on .

“ This holds true up to the sizing of about 10 meter [ 33 feet ] , then follows an abrupt fall in the abundance of subatomic particle , ” say Professor Brilliantov from the University of Leicester , which was part of the team , in astatement . But until now , the reason for this cliff had stay a mystery .

Now the scientists think that they have the answer . They found that over metre in the rings , smaller particle will “ stick ” together at gloomy upper and form larger molecule . But the larger a mote gets , the smashing the   chance of a high - upper hit that could demolish it , rather than stick to it , with a probability of about 1 in 10,000 .

“ Think of it as a boastful soup of billiard clod , ” Jürgen Schmidt from the University of Oulu in Finland , also part of the study , told IFLScience .

“ It is this stick around that make the whole size dispersion , ” he continue . “ It blend in on for larger and larger clump , then at some head , there are more red collision , and it breaks the clusters into small pieces , and they go through the whole outgrowth and climb that ravel again . ” He said that the appendage typically took just a few weeks .

Schmidt said that evidence for this model was support by datum from theCassiniandVoyagerspacecraft . And while observational evidence does n’t exist for other body , the team was   fairly confident that other satellite and asteroid with rings , even those outside the Solar System , would succeed this refined mathematical law .