On the formation of the rings of saturn

It is shown in this paper that a satellite which revolves round a primary in a circular orbit in tied revolution and which spirals within Roche's limit must form by its disintegration a ring of ellipse-like cross-section which is more than 11 times larger than the original spherical diameter of the disintegrating body. The individual particles have elliptic orbits with small eccentricities and revolve in different planes at small inclinations to each other. By inelastic collisions of particles in differently inclined orbits the original considerable thickness of the ring is very greatly reduced.

Applied to the system of Saturn it is assumed that the Rings A and B are formed by disintegration of two different satellites. It can be shown that the satellite A had an original diameter of 1721 km and a density of 0.95 g/cm³, the satellite B a diameter of 2463 km and a density of 1.95.

Thus the hypothesis of G. P. Kuiper, that the rings of Saturn are composed of H²O-snow contaminated by silicate dust (as Jupiter III), seems to fit very well.