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Worldbuilding

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  • $\begingroup$ I don't think there's much risk from impacts, since ring particles are usually less than 10 meters across and mostly the size of pebbles or dust specks. Most of them would burn up or fragment on re-entry or land harmlessly. Meteoroids of that size range fall into Earth's atmosphere every day without doing any damage. And presumably these would be concentrated around the equator. Depending on the arrangement of the planet's continents, most of them might land in the ocean. $\endgroup$
    – Christopher Bennett
    Commented Apr 7 at 2:32
  • $\begingroup$ They could also see the planet throwing a spherical shadow on the ring. And the rings would be fantastic build material for a high-orbit industry. $\endgroup$
    – Pica
    Commented Apr 7 at 9:43
  • $\begingroup$ @Pica - that assumes the rings have any significant mass. Saturn's entire ring system masses about 1.5 * 10^19 kg. That's half the mass of the Antarctic ice shelf, spread over a space 80 times the surface area of our entire planet. Not exactly a rich source of anything. $\endgroup$
    – jdunlop
    Commented Apr 8 at 23:19
  • $\begingroup$ Thats enough volatiles to start a inner-system space industry $\endgroup$
    – Pica
    Commented Apr 9 at 7:07