The reason for the secondary rings, and the explanation for their outward travel, is a straightforward application of potential flow, namely that lines of vorticity induce rotational motion that falls off at 1/r. As the rings approach each other, they induce outward motion, and any instability or imperfections in the rings cause closer points between the two rings to induce more motion. With a bit of mental squinting, you can see how the primary rings would pinch off to form the secondaries. A similar thing can happen to passenger jet contrails, causing paired contrails to form a string of rings. Conspiracy enthusiasts point to these as evidence for “Aurora” or other exotic propulsion schemes, but they’re really just a rolled out version of the phenomenon in Dustin’s tank.

This comment would have been better with a whiteboard.