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agate_ t1_j5b7f4e wrote

No. The ring particles are in orbit, and orbits that are closer to the planet always go faster. So the inner particles are always moving faster than the outer particles, and can’t stick together.

If you took Saturn’s rings and added more ice particles to them, they would not weld together. Instead, collisions between particles would knock more of them into higher orbits and more into lower orbits. The ring would get wider, and a lot of the mass you add would fall into Saturn.

Even if you tried to build a solid structure shaped like Saturn’s rings from scratch out of steel, the difference in gravity between inside and outside would create tremendous forces that would rip it apart.

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atomfullerene t1_j5dmd9o wrote

And even if you could somehow build a solid ring (perhaps by making it out of scrith :P) it wouldn't remain in a stable "orbit" of Saturn.

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rabbitwonker t1_j5bysdh wrote

What would be the type of circumstance where they could collapse into moon(s)?

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Jetison333 t1_j5h6c45 wrote

The rings would have to be lifted outside of Saturn's roche limit in order to form mons.

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ontopofyourmom t1_j5bz93l wrote

If enough of it found its way into the same place to agglomerate gravitationally.

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