Planetary Ring Formation

Debris slowly coalesces into stable rings around a gas giant.

Drag to orbit, scroll to zoom.

A cloud of orbiting debris particles is animated on the GPU-friendly THREE.Points system: each particle's angle advances via an individually assigned angular speed while its radius eases from a random starting orbit toward one of four fixed "band" radii, mimicking how collisional damping shepherds scattered ring material into discrete bands over time. The whole process loops on a fixed timer so the coalescing/dispersing cycle repeats continuously, and a procedurally painted canvas texture gives the gas giant its banded, turbulent atmosphere.