3156: Planetary Rings

2025-10-17T17:55:57Z

Julianhyde: Add estimates of masses of planetary ring systems

{{comic
| number = 3156
| date = October 17, 2025
| title = Planetary Rings
| image = planetary_rings_2x.png
| imagesize = 356x279px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = If you don't know where you are on Earth, the angle of satellite dishes can help constrain your latitude. If some of them are pointing straight up, you're probably near the Equator, right under the ring.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by an off-axis satellite dish. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
A {{w|ring system|planetary ring}} is a disc of small objects and other material orbiting a planet. The most well known are the rings of {{w|Saturn}}, which were discovered by {{w|Galileo Galilei}}, but all the {{w|gas giant}} planets in the Solar System have rings, as do some minor planets and moons.

Earth does not have a natural ring system, although it's theorized that it may have had one in the distant past.[https://web.archive.org/web/20250401024532/https://time.com/7022440/earth-ring-like-saturn-study/] However, since the 1950's (about 68 years ago at the time this comic was posted) we have launched many artificial satellites into Earth orbit, and most of them orbit in the equatorial plane (a small number are in {{w|polar orbit}}s), so they constitute an artificial ring system.

{{w|Satellite dishes}} are used to communicate with most of these devices. But since some are used for communicating with polar satellites and space probes, it's not all as claimed by the caption.

In terms of mass, Earth's ring system is tiny compared to other planetary ring systems in the Solar System. In descending order of mass, these are Saturn (1019 kg [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aat2965]), Uranus (1016 kg [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rings_of_Uranus]), Jupiter (between 1011 and 1016 kg [https://pages.astro.umd.edu/~dphamil/research/preprints/BurSimSho03.pdf]), Neptune (1015 kg [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rings_of_Neptune]). Assuming 580 satellites (active and inactive) in geostationary orbit [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_satellites_in_geosynchronous_orbit] and a typical mass of 1,000 kg, Earth's ring system has a mass of 106 kg.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

:[On the left side, a table:]
: Planet Ring?
: Mercury ☐
: Venus ☐
: Earth [[☑]]
: Mars ☐
: Jupiter ☑
: Saturn ☑
: Uranus ☑
: Neptune ☑

:[On the right side, a drawing of the Earth from space, with Africa in view. Many dots represent the satellites, and most of them are in an ellipse. An arrow points to it:]
:Geostationary satellite belt

:[Caption below the panel:]
: Astronomy fact: a century ago, Earth didn't have rings, but we have one now! It's where all the satellite dishes are pointed.

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Comics with color]]

3142: (City)-Style Pizza

2025-09-17T16:06:18Z

Julianhyde: Add link to regional variations

{{comic
| number = 3142
| date = September 15, 2025
| title = <City>-Style Pizza
| image = city_style_pizza_2x.png
| imagesize = 480x314px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = If you want to see true audacity, do an image search for 'Altoona-style pizza.'
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was created by a BOT WITH SAUSAGE AND ANCHOVIES. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
{{w|Pizza}} is one of the most popular foods in the United States and a number of major cities have {{w|Pizza_in_the_United_States#Variations|regional variations on pizza}}, which have come to be named after the city. {{w|New York–style pizza}} and {{w|Chicago-style pizza}} are two of the most well known. New York-style pizza is characterized by a thin, flexible crust topped with tomato sauce, followed by various toppings, then topped with mozzarella cheese. Chicago-style pizza has a much thicker, bread-like crust which is typically topped with melted cheese, with a mixture of sauce and toppings added on top.

This comic contains a chart that compares the tastiness of pizza styles with the size of the city in the name. They generally span a broad range, and the upper limit tends to be pretty consistent, suggesting that cities of all sizes can produce good pizza. Interestingly, the smallest cities are shown as having the least possibility for good pizza, but the apex is shown as being for mid-sized cities toward the smaller end of the spectrum. No explanation is given for this, possibly [[Randall]] may have a particular favorite from a mid-sized city.

The lower end of the range, though, shows much more variation. The largest cities are shown as having limited possibilities for bad pizza, with the worst examples still being okay. The smaller the cities are, the more potential there is for the regional pizza to be bad. This may be due to the fact that large cities tend to have many restaurants within a limited area, meaning that there's a lot of competition, and unappealing eateries are unlikely to be able to compete. Smaller cities with fewer eating options might accept lower quality choices because they lack options.

At the lowest end of the range are very small cities with terrible regional pizza. The caption jokes that this is to due to "bored restaurant owners" deliberately making up bad pizza varieties as a "fun prank" on visitors. The implication is that some local pizza styles are so bad that they could only have been created as a joke, and even the people who created them don't think they're appealing.

New York-style pizza is indicated at the top of the city size axis (New York City being the largest city in the US), and near the top of the tastiness axis, but in the middle of the range of cities of its size. New York City is where pizza was first popularized in the US, having been brought by Italian immigrants in the 19th century. The style from New York has been highly influential over pizza throughout the country, and is generally acknowledged to be appealing to most people.

The title text gives a specific example of a terrible pizza from a small city, Describing {{w|Altoona-style pizza}} as "true audacity". Created in the Altoona Hotel in {{w|Altoona, Pennsylvania}}, it has a thick square of bread-like Sicilian-style crust, covered with tomato sauce, bell peppers, and salami and a slice of American cheese. Not only does Randall implicitly find this to be highly unappetizing, but considers it audacious to even call it pizza. The design of this pizza looks more like an open-faced sandwich than traditional pizza, the structure is odd for pizza, the toppings are eccentric, and the use of American cheese to top pizza is so strange that many pizza fans would considered it practically heresy. This is presumably the type of "pizza" that Randall believes could only be created as a joke.

A remarkable spike in Google searches for Altoona-style pizza was observed at the publication date of this comic, as can be observed on [https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=%2Fg%2F11nmt6q5kp Google Trends].

The original comic's title has an encoding error in terms of HTML rendering, and it was copied to this wiki page. It reads "<City>-Style", which is interpreted by web browsers as containing an HTML tag and rendered as "-Style".

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Don't remove this notice too soon.}}
:[A graph.]
:[The x and y axes have no unit markings, and are labeled:]
::[X axis: City size →]
::[Y axis: Tastiness of "<city>-style pizza" ↑]

:[A shaded region is bounded by a lower bound and an upper bound. The upper bound has a slight curve up corresponding to a smallish city, but is otherwise mostly flat. The lower bound appears on the X axi] close to the left, evens out to being almost flat in the middle, and rises toward the right.]

:[An arrow points to the right end of the shaded area, with the label:]
::New York up here somewhere

:[A label is in the middle of the shaded region at a medium X value. Many arrows point outward from the text, which reads:]
::various controversial regional specialties

:[An arrow points to the region with a low x and y-value, where the line for the lower bound is missing. This region is labeled:]
::towns with bored restaurant owners who have come up with a fun prank to play on visitors

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category: Food]]
[[Category: Charts]]

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3156: Planetary Rings

3142: (City)-Style Pizza