Saturn is not the only planet with rings. Our close neighbour also had them, and they will return

Of the eight planets in our solar system, four have rings - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. However, in the coming years, a fifth name might also be added to the list. Our neighbouring planet, Mars, is believed to form rings in the next 50 million to 70 million years. Surprisingly, this would not be the first time that the red planet would have rings. Scientists think that Mars has had rings in the past, shedding them and later again embracing them.

The rings around Mars are a result of its moon Phobos. According to studies, Phobos disintegrates at a certain point in its life, and the debris surrounds the planet to form the rings.

Phobos is one of Mars' two moons, the other one being Deimos.

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The former is slowly moving towards the planet, inching closer by about six feet every 100 years. At this rate, scientists say that Phobos will either crash into the planet or break apart.

NASA studies on Mars and its moons

NASA has carried out studies to learn more about Mars and its moons. One of them, conducted at Purdue University, noted that a cosmic body slammed into Mars around 4.3 billion years ago. The resulting debris spread around the planet, forming a ring. Over millions of years, this debris clumped together to create Phobos, Mars's moon.

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This process is not a one-time thing. In fact, they discovered that Phobos regularly breaks apart, creating the temporary ring and later comes back together again to form the moon. Every time this process happens, the resulting moon is five times smaller than the previous one.

Why is Phobos getting closer to Mars?

Phobos is being pulled towards Mars by the planet's gravitational force. At one stage, it reaches the Roche limit. At this distance, the planet's tidal forces destroy Phobos since it is only held together by gravity.

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David Minton and Andrew Hesselbrock, who carried out the study at Purdue, believe this has already happened about three to seven times in the history of the planet.

What about Mars' other moon, Deimos?

Deimos is much farther away from Mars than Phobos. It is in an orbit at a distance of 23,460 km, while Phobos is only 6,000 km from Mars. Deimos is on exactly the opposite trajectory from Phobos.

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It is slowly moving away from Mars and is expected to escape its orbit in the coming years.

Can Earth have rings?

The scenario of our moon crashing into Earth is not likely since it is in a stable orbit. It is 384,400 km away from the planet, much farther than Phobos and Deimos are to Mars. In fact, our moon is also moving away from us, shifting about a few centimetres every year. However, it can change course in the distant future if things change in the solar system.