We have got to get ourselves some rings

[roseembolism]

That is, Earth has got to get itself a ring system. Why? Because from he ground, it would be stunningly beautiful, as this video shows:

Can you imagine what it would be like if Earth had had those rings throughout history? The entire history of astronomy would be different, as there would be no doubt that the earth was round. And beyond that, the effect on religion and mythology I can't even imagine.

So there's obviously only one thing we can do: move a largish asteroid, say the sized of Ceres into close orbit, and convert it into rings. We owe it to future generations.

Comments

[dragonluk.livejournal.com]

Put a ring on it?

[deirdremoon.livejournal.com]

If you like it, then you'd better.

[silverstreak.livejournal.com]

*rolleyes*

[devonapple.livejournal.com]

I propose Burger King do a promotional tie-in whereby the Earth is surrounded with an orbital ring of actual, space-frozen packets of onion rings. Then when there is hunger identified anywhere in the world, satellites can flick the packages towards the afflicted region: the atmosphere will cook them on re-entry, and voila!

[rfmcdpei.livejournal.com]

Ceres would be too large, plus it would be a dark body producing dark-coloured rings. It's better to bring in an icy body, perhaps a small moon of Saturn, to be pulverized for Earth-ringing.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

The problem with an icy body is it would quickly sublimate. Maybe we can manage some way to polish the ring particles? Where's nanotechnology when it would actually be useful?

[rfmcdpei.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Maybe bright materials from the surfaces of Luna or Mercury? Vesta's quite bright, but I'm reluctant to shatter such a beautiful world.

Ceres, I think, should be shifted into a stable orbit around Mars if we're moving it at all, perhaps at the same time that we crush a smallish ice moon to give Mars a nice stock of volatiles.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

Has anyone calculated how large a moon Mars needs in order to get decent oceans?

Anyway, IIRC, even the bright surfaces of the moon have a low albedo. Maybe Mercury would do, or perhaps we could grab an iron-nickle asteroid and forge a lot of little polished-steel satellites. If we could toss in some gold-coated ones as well, that would be even better.

Now all we need to do is come up with a good technological excuse to put millions of dust-sized to house-sized spheres in bands less than a kilometer thick. That will help with the grant money, and mollify the orbital tower fans.

[deirdremoon.livejournal.com]

Not only was that gorgeous in its own right, but I got to see pics of international landmarks I'd never seen before. Iran was particularly beautiful.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

They did come up with a brilliant selection of locations to use.