Rings in the Solar System: a short review

TL;DR

This review summarizes the main characteristics, evolution processes, and origins of rings around giant planets and small bodies in our Solar System, highlighting recent discoveries and theoretical insights.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of ring formation, evolution, and recent findings, integrating new observations of rings around small bodies.

Findings

Rings are common around giant planets and can form during planet formation or later.

Ring systems evolve through dynamical processes influenced by nearby satellites.

Recent discoveries include rings around small Solar System bodies.

Abstract

Rings are ubiquitous around giant planets in our Solar System. They evolve jointly with the nearby satellite system. They could form either during the giant planet formation process or much later, as a result of large scale dynamical instabilities either in the local satellite system, or at the planetary scale. We review here the main characteristics of rings in our solar system, and discuss their main evolution processes and possible origin. We also discuss the recent discovery of rings around small bodies.