Saturns rings

[r4pt0r]

I found this gif, it was titled "Saturns rings affected by moon's gravity", and it got me thinking...

Could Saturn's ring system ever collapse? Why does it seem that so many bodies can stay in what seems to be a stable orbit without eventually throwing each other out?

[SargeRho]

Saturn's Rings will eventually fade. I think 125 million years was the number.

[Scotius]

Many small moons orbiting near or inside the rings "herd" the material - forcing it to remain in stable-ish orbits. They appropriately called "shepherd moons".

[spudman2]

Shepard moons?

[Thomassino]

Outer rings will probably be disrupted in the future, possibly forming another moons, but inner rings orbit within Roche limit of Saturn, so it's unlikely they would form any bigger object. It's more likely that particles from Saturn's inner rings will eventually start to burn up in Saturn's atmosphere, but this process will probably be a lot longer than moon formation in outer rings.

[Camacha]

Could Saturn's ring system ever collapse? Why does it seem that so many bodies can stay in what seems to be a stable orbit without eventually throwing each other out?

Thing is, you are most likely seeing the result of a lot of throwing out and other chaos. What remains is relatively stable, which is why the rings seem permanent from a human perspective

Long story short, it is no coincidence that the rings appear stable - only what was or became relatively stable remains there to be seen by us.