Re: Hypothetical Ringed Planet

I'm contemplating a writing a piece of science fiction that would take
place on a planet that is roughly earth-like in diameter, tilt, and
distance from a roughly Sol-like sun, but which has icy rings about
its equator like Saturn's. I have several questions about this:

1. Is such a planet plausible? Is there anything known about the
formation of solar systems that would make it unlikely?

Not exactly, but at our distance, icy rings would not be long-lived.
(It's not even clear that Saturn's rings are that long-lived.) Rocky
rings would last longer--would that be suitable? Ice will sublimate.

To be fair, long-lived means hundreds of millions to billions of years.

2. Can anyone suggest tools I can use to help visualize what the sky
would look like from the surface of the planet at different latitudes,
during different seasons, and at different times of day and night?
Can anyone suggest existing fiction (or non-fiction) works that
describe this in some detail?

You could look at some Chesley Bonestell paintings. :)

3. During winter seasons, some latitudes will be entirely in the
shadow of the rings (to the extent that the rings are opaque). During
the summer, the extra solar reflection from the rings will add quite a
bit to the brightness of daylight. So each hemisphere (north and
south) will swing radically from hot to cold through the seasons (more
so than earth). I'm interested in any speculation about what this
would do to the planet's weather systems.

Good question. I don't know enough about weather to answer that
reliably.

--
Brian Tung <brian@xxxxxxx>
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
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.

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