How Earth will look if it had a ring system like Saturn

[LongAndShort]

Would we be able to mine the rings? Just thinking it would be far better if we could mine floating lifeless debris then destroy and pollute the earthen landscape (I'm nothing if not practical).

It would look cool though.

 

[scrambledeggs]

I really didn't think that video was that impressive, at all..

They looked like shit.

Ring free, please!

 

[Emilin_Rose]

That's quite an amazing depiction of Earth with rings but I am of the opinion that it's a blessing such a thing does not exist around our planet. I would imaging ancient astronomy would be severely impaired with a massive dust screen in the way and that would put back several of the discoveries that revolutionized science, space travel in the modern age will also be hazardous due to the ridiculous number of debris that are capable of piercing a shuttle's outer skin or an astronaut during an EVA and last but not least, the placing of geostationary satellites might be a problem with all that rocks flying about. So telecommunications, GPS, weather forcasts and internet technology might be at a standstill. Hubble, Spacelab, Mir, ISS these would also be a difficult dream if we had rings, all that clutter would make an already complicated task even more complicated..

Then again I am only guessing here!.

I do have to form some counterpoints here. The rings would have influenced everything right from the start, from weather to religion.

It's quite likely that all known religions now would be considered the projects of the insane and criminally stupid. Humans are resourceful creatures when forced and i'm sure would have come up with different means of navigation.

Furthermore, with something like that in the way of space exploration, humankind would have either had to advance their technologies in that area far more quickly than they have in our history, or redirected the scientific effort toward things like cleaning the environment and battling diseases.

Who's to say we'd even be as we are now with rings in place? we might have evolved with wings or gills or any number of things.

There's also the possibility of the rings affecting human theories and philosophies. Off the top of my head one idea might be "everything is an endless cycle, no matter how we try to fight it will continue on as it has. Therefore live not to live long but live fully that when the cycle begins again you may say in the end it was worth it".

not to make an argument out of this just a few counterpoints to think of as well

Indeed the rings would have had a significant impact on early man. Especially in the religious department which would have sprung different mythologies. Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and all those would have shaped their stories of gods, demi-gods based off the ring. The impact would most definitely be profound, it could even influence architecture (as shrines to the ring) to agriculture or astrological calendars. Navigation might have been a bit easier considering that there would be a fixed curve dividing the sky as a reference point. Also it can be argued and as you said, with difficulties in space exploration mankind would have more time and resources to dedicate towards terrestrial discoveries and projects; such as mapping our oceans (which in an alternative "ring based" earth might reveal more than we know currently) advances in medicine and whatnot. It's completely speculative..

however, we would not have at any rate evolved differently. Having rings in space might cause alteration to out magnetic field strength and gravitational constant but I doubt our genetics would lead us to have wing or gills. Humanities existence on Earth has only being for a short period of time and such a quantum leap in the gene pool would require a strong evolutionary change which I don't think the rings would have provided. Even if it did for some odd reason it would take many more centuries for genetic drift to result in a new evolutionary pathway for mankind. And even then that path may not necessarily express ones phenotypes as wing and gills.

Again it's all speculation; the rings, for all I know, may affect out tides and submerge all our cities in which case we may emerge as gill-people but it wouldn't have been an instantaneous transformation, such a thing would take millions of years to evolve properly and there is a good chance we would have been killed off anyway.

I mentioned the evolution as an endpoint of sorts. The rings would have developed long before any sentient life and may have affected the way life's beginnings grew and shaped, thus altering everything after that point. Also it may have affected natural selection, in that creatures that could utilize the position of the ring to help them hunt for prey or migrate safely to and from mating grounds would have slightly more staying power than those that couldn't. Instantaneous transformation, while the staple of my formerly-beloved Pokemon games, does not work with the way our biology and the biology of most earth life forms is made to work. Theoretically it is possible for a creature to undergo such changes so quickly, but that goes hand in hand with the 'intelligent life on other planets' theory in that while its most definitely reasonable within certain constraints, it isn't something we, as people, are likely to find. And now i'm going entirely off topic so i'm going to end this there.

 

[McHanhan]

Thinking about space stuff always makes me feel frustrated like a pissed off little kid. I remember watching "Sunshine" and getting really mad that there is a whole universe of the coolest things possible that I'll never get to see.

 

[Khedive Rex]

First off, the concept that the earth was flat would never have come into fruition.

Such a concept never really existed anyway.
Every scholar and navigator throughout history has known the Earth was round. The idea we didn't know is itself a myth.

The educated classes knew that the earth was round, uneducated peasentries did not. I don't think that the rings would have made it easier for navigators and famous explorers to justify their intercontinental travels to themselves so much as it would have been easier to explain flying off into the wild blue yonder to a crew of largely superstitious sailors. In this regard, the existence of rings would still have resulted in much more wide spread exploration much earlier.

 

[Qwerty0]

I don't think we're talking about subtle differences in our religions and astronomy.

My instinct here is that there's no way we would've evolved the same (or likely at all). Can't say I can come up with a full explanation, though. I don't know how, but I think it'd affect any combination of:

Tides - Maybe crazy ones that scour the coasts
Weather - The shadow would make changing, extreme differences in temperatures across the earth, and temperature differences create hurricanes and other extreme weather
Climate - How much of the sun would it block? Are we talking permanent ice age?
Meteor impacts - I think this is most likely to fuck us up. Those rings are made of millions of rocks, not necessarily in stable orbits

Ok, here's a source on the topic:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_rings#History_of_Earth_rings
Looks like they might be a little crazy thinking there were rings recently, but their reason for proposing them are to explain mass extinctions. So looks like people have figured out there's big consequences.

 

[Kaboose the Moose]

*snip*

In the event the rings were created along with Earth then yes, early life would have evolved differently resulting in a varied but possibly not very deviant set of creatures from the ones we know today. If however the rings were a recent introduction (exploded satellite or something to that effect) then it may be a while before we see a change. It all comes down to the selection pressures acting on the current ecosystem that would affect the rate of mutations and thereby changes. In any case I would like to thing that everything would balance out in the end, like Le Chatelier's Principle for a system at equilibrium.

Humanity would be astounding in a terrestrial sense but in the broader scope of thing we might just be a bit lagging. The most annoying thing will be the limitations of satellite technology and high speed internet and crappy GPS systems. At least we'll have a pretty sky!.

 

[Knife-28]

Minor problem: Don't rings get formed from moons/asteroids that shatter in the gravity well and set up orbit?

That means we have to take a hit first, and the dinosaurs didn't like that last one.

IANAA though.

The moon was actually formed by a mars sized planatoid coliding with a young earh so we were pritty close to having rings at the expense of no moon.

 

[Emilin_Rose]

*snip*

In the event the rings were created along with Earth then yes, early life would have evolved differently resulting in a varied but possibly not very deviant set of creatures from the ones we know today. If however the rings were a recent introduction (exploded satellite or something to that effect) then it may be a while before we see a change. It all comes down to the selection pressures acting on the current ecosystem that would affect the rate of mutations and thereby changes. In any case I would like to thing that everything would balance out in the end, like Le Chatelier's Principle for a system at equilibrium.

Humanity would be astounding in a terrestrial sense but in the broader scope of thing we might just be a bit lagging. The most annoying thing will be the limitations of satellite technology and high speed internet and crappy GPS systems. At least we'll have a pretty sky!.

My thoughts exactly. Except who's to say we wouldn't have developed different technologies to make up for lack of satellites and GPS systems? Maybe some that float in the sea or are buried in the ground? Possibilities are endless.

 

[Aesir23]

Dammit, I want a ring system now. >_<

Minor problem: Don't rings get formed from moons/asteroids that shatter in the gravity well and set up orbit?

That means we have to take a hit first, and the dinosaurs didn't like that last one.

IANAA though.

The moon was actually formed by a mars sized planatoid coliding with a young earh so we were pritty close to having rings at the expense of no moon.

B-b-but Saturn has rings AND moons. Damn you Saturn!

 

[Qwerty0]

The moon was actually formed by a mars sized planatoid coliding with a young earh so we were pritty close to having rings at the expense of no moon.

Right, and for a while (not sure how long), before the moon coalesced we did have a ring system. I read the debris from the impact settled into a circular orbit within 24 hours.

Here's a simulation of how it looked:

 

[Kollega]

What do you guys think life on earth would be like with a ring system? It was said in the description that if we did have rings around our planet they may have influenced certain religions and most definitely mythology. Do you agree?

OMG micrometeor ring system! DO WANT! And yes, they would certainly be a prominent part of myths and religions. But yeah, there could be some problems regarding space exploration.

 

[thiosk]

Luckily, earth does have a ring system. Its hard to see, but if you get out in it for too long you'll probably get obliterated by a bolt or a shoe.

 

[McHanhan]

Luckily, earth does have a ring system. Its hard to see, but if you get out in it for too long you'll probably get obliterated by a bolt or a shoe.

Yeah all that trash we keep dropping there, I'm sure one day it'll form a belt around the Earth. It won't be pretty since instead of rocks it'll be junk like broken satellites, dropped panels, bolts and insulating foam.

Also: does anyone have a scientific reason why the ring, be it natural or man made be exactly at the equator?. Uranus has a weird tilted ring so I dunno.

 

[Aedes]

Wow... it would sure look way more badass!

And to add even more coolness, I wish Earth had not one, but 3 moons! And the Sun should be a binary system!

Now back to the question:

What do you guys think life on earth would be like with a ring system? It was said in the description that if we did have rings around our planet they may have influenced certain religions and most definitely mythology. Do you agree?.

Well yes, ofc. A direct impact over our social and cultural values. It's been ages since man started to look at the sky and wished to grasp it infinity. The rings would add one more reason to reach the sky.

 

[Arachon]

Really cool video, Astronomy never ceases to amaze me, even though I find it a bit too complicated for me to fully comprehend.