Why didn't Polyphemus have rings?

[Boba Fett]

As the major natural satellites of gas giants usually orbit in the same plane as the rings, a ring system would be barely visible if not completely invisible from Pandora. I think it would be kinda cool if during the approach to the moon, we saw a majestic system of rings around the planet, which mysteriously disappeared during the rest of the film - it would be a nice visual clue of where Pandora is orbiting, and it would also be slightly educational.

Another thing that would be cool about it is the fact that the Na'vi would have never seen the beauty of the ring system of their planet. As they no doubt have some passion for the gas giant in their sky (I hope we hear more about how they view it in the sequels), seeing its rings might be something they might find tempting, and one more reason to take them some of them for a ride around the small moon system. It could have been one little step in the bringing of our and their people together in the end (since I'm hoping for some kind of happy end for both sides).

What do you think?

[Sempu]

Too much of a visual cliché IMHO. I don't see why every gas giant should have rings.

[Fighter-of-Wars]

Originally Posted by Sempu

Too much of a visual cliché IMHO. I don't see why every gas giant should have rings.

Kind of what I was thinking.

[Icu]

Taking the Na'vi to space? Whoa.... crazy idea

[Dreaming Of Pandora]

Every planet in our solar system that has a satellite(s) had a ring system at one point. The ring system of Jupiter is barely visible now but it could have rivaled Saturn's some million years ago.

Ring systems "decay" over time -- the ring material - balls of ice and rock - is gradually pulled into the planet. For example, Saturn's ring system should be gone in the next million or so years; they go quickly - a second in perspective of a planet's life -- and so has Jupiters.

The Earth had a ring system before the Moon formed.

[Boba Fett]

Originally Posted by Sempu

Too much of a visual cliché IMHO. I don't see why every gas giant should have rings.

Actually they all all do, it's only those of Saturn that are so clearly visible. And I also tend to find Saturn's less dramatic cloud cover and rings more appealing than Jupiter's crazy cloud cover and no rings. But that's just my personal preference here. And I think I understand why they did, I'm just complaining about it.

Anyway, if we disregard the visual cliché part, do you think that rings would be cool? And if we disregard the rings, what about just taking the Na'vi on a little journey in space?

Since I watched the film, I was disappointed by the fact that Pandora is so wonderful that there is nothing that we could show them. I mean, they even have a gas giant in the sky, there's very little left that we could show them.

We could give them a telescope, and while I'm certain that they would like it, with the atmosphere of Pandora it wouldn't show much without going into orbit, and even then it has to be enormous to show them something that could rival Pandora's night sky. The planet has no rings, so the only thing left is showing them Pandora itself.

[Banefull]

Originally Posted by Boba Fett

Since I watched the film, I was disappointed by the fact that Pandora is so wonderful that there is nothing that we could show them. I mean, they even have a gas giant in the sky, there's very little left that we could show them.

We could give them a telescope, and while I'm certain that they would like it, with the atmosphere of Pandora it wouldn't show much without going into orbit, and even then it has to be enormous to show them something that could rival Pandora's night sky. The planet has no rings, so the only thing left is showing them Pandora itself.

In the days following the end of the first movie, I always imagined Jake at Hell's Gate showing Neytiri the stars through a small telescope. It would make for an awesome scene.

[Sempu]

Yes, I know every gas giant and to some extent every planet in our own solar system has rings. That doesn't mean every gas giant in every other solar system is required to have them.

[Human No More]

Exactly - neither are rings guaranteed to form around a planet (just likely due to the amount of debris). Polyphemus could have never had much in the way of rings, or they could have decayed. Alpha Centauri A is older than Earth's sun, 5-6 billion years as opposed to ~4.6.

[iron_jones]

Miracles.

[Boba Fett]

Originally Posted by Human No More

Exactly - neither are rings guaranteed to form around a planet (just likely due to the amount of debris). Polyphemus could have never had much in the way of rings, or they could have decayed. Alpha Centauri A is older than Earth's sun, 5-6 billion years as opposed to ~4.6.

I think that the idea is that a gas giant is expected to have at least some of its initial moons shattered by tidal forces while the rest slowly become tidally locked. Of course, I could be mistaken, but that's beyond the point anyway (and it's never said that Polyphemus doesn't have rings, they could be just very very hard to spot ). Anyway, a system of a three tiny rings that are not too prominent, but are still clearly visible during the approach, would have been significantly different from Saturn and from Jupiter, and they would almost certainly invisible from the planet below.

[auroraglacialis]

In my dreams it has rings
But on a sciency side, I guess a ring system with moons in it would not be the greatest thing for these moons. After all rings are particles and blocks that at least in part disappear over the eons because they crash on the moons. Not really that great a place to form life.

[Moco Loco]

I have also occasionally seen a *very* thin ring around it in my dreams, which is much closer to the planet than any of the moons.