Earth: If you like it, put a ring on it (pictures)
What if Earth had rings like Saturn? Veteran space artist Ron Miller imagines how our sky would differ.
Rings over Guatemala
Actually, for a very brief period Earth may have once had rings. They could have been the result of an impact, billions of years ago, between Earth and a Mars-sized protoplanet called Theia. Debris from the collision coalesced into the moon, according to the giant impact hypothesis.
This illustration shows a view from Earth if our planet had rings that shared the same proportion as Saturn's. From Guatemala, the rings spread across the sky over an ancient temple. Reflected light from Earth, or earthlight, that illuminates the dark side of the moon is much brighter than in reality because of sunlight being reflected from the rings.
Line over Quito
Land of the 24-hour rings
Not your average sky
"During the course of every night you would be able watch it sweep across the ring like the hand of a God's own wristwatch," Miller writes on sci-fi blog io9.
"Here it is midnight, with the shadow at its fullest extent. The edge of the shadow is tinged an orangish-pink as sunlight passes through the Earth's atmosphere."
Equinoctial rings 1
The perspective here is at the equator itself, when the sun intersects the plane of the rings.