Pluto Rings?

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plutocracy

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Ok. I wanna know something.<br /><br />How come we can see small earth-like planets that orbit around suns that are light-years away from us but...<br /><br />we can only GUESS that pluto MIGHT have rings???<br /><br />What is this??<br /><br /> If our telescopes could see planets around suns, we ought to be able to see so close that we could answer whether or not Pluto has fleas (hi mickey!) rather than to guess whether it has rings!!!!<br /><br />Someone tell me why, please!
 
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Saiph

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surface brightness and resolution.<br /><br />First, we can detect planets around other stars, usually, only by indirect evidence (star wobbles, eclipses etc). When we do actually see the planet (which we've done what, only a couple of times?) it's as a very faint point. We see no real features, any information we have about the actual planet comes from spectroscopy.<br /><br />We can see features and such on pluto. But there is one thing: it isn't very bright. Those planets we see reflect a lot of light from the parent star, their surface brightness is high. Pluto, doesn't have much light to reflect, and so it's surface brightness is low (even if it is closer). <br /><br />surface brightness, IIRC doesn't really change with distance, and is a key factor in how well objects show up in photographs.<br /><br />For instance, the andromeda galaxy puts out a LOT of light, and covers a large area of the sky (something like 8x the area of the moon?)..but we can't see it much, since the light is spread out over the entire disk of the galaxy. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p align="center"><font color="#c0c0c0"><br /></font></p><p align="center"><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">----</font></em></font><font color="#666699">SaiphMOD@gmail.com </font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">-------------------</font></em></font></p><p><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">"This is my Timey Wimey Detector.  Goes "bing" when there's stuff.  It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually.  I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- </font></em></font><font size="1" color="#999999">The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>
 
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harmonicaman

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Good question! We can't really "See" the Extrasolar planets, we have to infer their existence through a variety of means including measuring their host star's wobble and other arcane methods.<br /><br />Any rings around Pluto would be so dark (regardless of their albedo) that they would be very difficult to observe. From Pluto, the Sun looks like any other star.
 
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vogon13

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Forming a ring system (ala the Orpheus scenario) on an object with a deep thin (ok, really thin) atmosphere (especially if the impact event releases many volatiles as might be expected for such an event out Pluto way) is problematic at best.<br /><br />Even before the debris in randomly inclined orbits can 'collapse to the LaPlacian plane' it will be subject to drag effects and will most likely encounter the surface (again).<br /><br />The dissipation of the of the portion of the atmosphere derived from impact effects will take longer than it takes to decay the orbits of the possible ring materials.<br /><br />Having the atmosphere up to the Roche limit will play havoc with the ring system.<br /><br />Now, as to rings around Charon . . . . .<br /><br /><br /><img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />{it pains me to report this, as you may recall, I am a big fan of rings around small icy objects} <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>
 
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qso1

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The other responses cover it well in that we have yet to get actual images of planets in other solar systems for the reasons already mentioned.<br /><br />Remember when Jupiter did not have rings? It was one of the Voyager probes that confirmed Jupiter having rings, and only after it imaged them backlit by the Sun. The rings around Jupiter, dare I say Uranus. And Neptune are very tenuous and discovered only within the last quarter century. Unlike Saturns, these rings are too thin to be readily visible to telescopes here on Earth. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>
 
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efron_24

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Much more interesting for me is it to know why a Major impact on Pluto would leave 3 moons, Charon, P1 and P2 circling it, while we only got one big moon, Luna.<br /><br />If Pluto even got a ring I would be extremely jealouse <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />Wouldn't it have been super cool to have an earth with 2 or more moons. <br /><br />In general I am VERY sad that there aren't more internet sites about the Moon birth.<br /><br />A few tekst/info sites with only a hand full of drawings is an amazingly low amount if you realise HOW much other things are online.<br /><br />I want to know so very much what could have happened.<br /><br />The planet "Theia " came towards the earth.<br />Where could it have come from, where could it have formed, why did it come towards Earth so early in history ?<br /><br />and than ? Than what..<br />Some say the moon was created just hours after the impact. How ? What ...<br />And what did the two bodies look like, was Earth instantly round again, or was there a major crater filling in ?<br /><br />I google and I goole, but i do not find the answers.<br /><br />Both Earth and Moon where there.. where there other moons ? Is that likely.. somewhere i saw that Earth might have a ring.. and that more moons were present<br /><br />How likely is that ? and what couldh have happened.<br />If there were more moons, but Luna was to large.. did Luna swallow them all, (and Earth), or... what ?<br />How long could there have been other moons ?<br /><br />Is it possible that the Mares on Luna came to excistance when the other moon(s) slammed into Luna ?<br /><br />And than... Luna was hot and STEAMING i asume.. and although there is not much gravity, could there have been a little atmosphere ? Not all of the gasses could escape right away I think.<br /><br />could there have been clouds, steam clouds ? visual on Luna from Earth 4b. years ago ?<br /><br />What did the Magma seas of Luna look like seen from Earth ? What would the moon be like if you had an Eagle <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
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qso1

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Moons probably do not form as the result of impacts alone. Plutos are likely captured Kuiper Belt Objects (KBO) and Pluto itself may be a KBO.<br /><br />Many good questions and although we send space probes out there and many questions are not answered. Think of the ones these probes have answered. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>
 
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vogon13

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---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />Wouldn't it have been super cool to have an earth with 2 or more moons.<br />---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br /><br /><br />Whom ever is doing PR work for Cruithne and Toro is doing a piss poor job.<br /><br /><br />(Cruithne and Toro have gravitational resonances with earth, Cruithne 1:1 and IIRC, Toro is 8:5. Other fun 'siblings' are yet to be discovered)<br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>
 
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efron_24

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I have heard about Cruithne and Toro , but aren't they like the Trojans near Jupiter ? or are they concidered to be moons of Earth ? Did they originate during the same event that might have created Luna ? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>
 
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nacnud

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I always thought that rings were the result of ill advised adventures inside the Roche limit. As for multiple satellites forming from a single inpact I doubt it.
 
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vogon13

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A resonant relationship is rather more <i>intimate</i> than what most most ordinary asteroids can hope for.<br /><br />That we share Toro with Venus from time to time makes it all the more illicit and slinky.<br /><br /><img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /><br /><br />{see how much more fun science is when you look at it through my eyes?}<br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>
 
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