Uranus Has Rings

Following Saturn's rings, Uranus' were the first to be observed. They were an important discovery because they made astronomers realize that rings are a characteristic of planets generally, not just of Saturn.

Two rings are present on Uranus. The outer system of rings, found by the Hubble Space Telescope, consists of two more distant rings that are brilliantly colored: one red and one blue. The inner system of rings is primarily composed of narrow, black rings. There are 13 recognized rings around Uranus, according to scientists.

It is thought that the rings are fairly young and did not develop along with Uranus. The material in the rings may have originally been a piece of a moon (or moons) that were broken apart by incredibly fast collisions. Only a few particles survived from the large amount of debris that was created as a result of those strikes, and they were located in stable zones that matched the locations of the current rings.

According to a 2016 study, Pluto-like dwarf planets that erred by getting too close to the giant planets in the past may be the source of the rings on Uranus, Saturn, and Neptune. Due to the immense gravitational pull of the planets, these dwarf planets were shattered and are now only left as rings.