Scientists have just discovered a massive ring around Saturn - which is 1.5 million miles thick. It’s made of tenuous dust and is invisible to the naked eye. I saw a TV news item about it which showed what the ring would look like if it were visible – from Earth, it would be larger than the Moon.
I’m reminded of course of Larry Niven’s classic Ringworld stories, about an amazing ring-shaped world, a variation on the concept of the Dyson Sphere. If humans could live on a ring orbiting the sun, the amount of land would be – if not infinite – then certainly lots.
And so, I wonder, is Saturn’s eighth ring actually an artificial artefact? A home created by sentient beings able to live in space, which like to inhabit tiny particles of dust?
Is this, in short, Ringworld for dustmites….?
Well, maybe not, but it’s a thought.
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