Saturn’s Seeliger effect

In 1855, Cambridge University announced the Adams Prize for a work explaining the stability and appearance of Saturn’s rings. The winner was a brilliant, 26-year-old Scottish scientist, James Clerk Maxwell. (He was also the only contestant.) In his essay “ Maxwell used rigorous mathematical analysis to demonstrate that solid sheets of matter would be shattered by the slightest tidal disturbance, while liquid rings would have coalesced into visible satellites long ago. Only swarms of satellites far too small to be seen