Planetary rings have long been associated with claims that planets evolved. Supposedly, after planets formed from a swirling dust cloud, rings remained, as seen around the giant planets: Saturn, Uranus, Jupiter, and Neptune.a [See Figure 3.] Therefore, some believe that because we see rings, planets must have evolved.b
Actually, planetary rings do not relate to a planet’s origin. They form when a planet’s gravity captures material from a passing asteroid or material expelled from a nearby moon—by a volcano, a geyser, tidal effects, or the impact of a comet or meteorite.c Debris that escapes a moon or asteroid because of its weak gravity and the giant planet’s gigantic gravity then orbits that planet as a ring. Ring material, called ring rain, is seen falling onto Saturn’s surface at a rapid rate, showing that Saturn’s rings are young. They they will be gone in less than 10,000 years.d (The Chapter that begins on page 337 explains why asteroids delivered ring material to the giant planets soon after the flood.) Because a planet’s gravity pulls escaped particles away from its moons, particles orbiting a planet could never form moons—as evolutionists assert.