Final answer:
The 'spokes' on the B ring are explained by the collision of high-speed gas from a supernova with the ring, causing the gas within to heat up and glow. Rings are composed of orbiting particles that do not rotate as a solid body, and the structures within rings can be influenced by gravitational interactions with moons, known as shepherd moons.
Step-by-step explanation:
When examining the structure of astronomical rings, such as those seen in Supernova 1987A or the rings of Saturn, we are often intrigued by the presence of distinctive features like the "spokes" on the B ring. These spokes appear due to interactions between materials within the ring system. In the context of Supernova 1987A, the appearance of bright spots, or spokes, on the ring was observed to significantly increase over a period of time. Such variations are caused when high-speed gas ejected by the supernova collides with the ring, resulting in heated gas that glows more brightly and forms the visible spots.
Rings around astronomical bodies are collections of numerous particles, each orbiting the central body in accordance with Kepler's laws. Individual particles or moonlets in the inner parts of the ring move faster than those further out, which means the ring does not rotate as a single solid body.
The creation of rings can be attributed to two hypotheses: the breakup hypothesis and the failed moon formation hypothesis. Furthermore, the structure of certain rings, such as Saturn's F Ring, is maintained by shepherd moons like Pandora and Prometheus, which exert gravitational forces that confine the particles to a specific region in space.