Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The rings of Jupiter are a system of faint planetary rings. The Jovian rings were the third ring system to be discovered in the Solar System, after those of Saturn and Uranus. The main ring was discovered in 1979 by the Voyager 1 space probe [1] and the system was more thoroughly investigated in the 1990s by the Galileo orbiter. [2]
Jupiter’s rings were discovered in 1979 by the passing Voyager 1 spacecraft, but their origin was a mystery. Data from the Galileo spacecraft that orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003 later confirmed that these rings were created by meteoroid impacts on small nearby moons.
The existence of Jupiter's ring was first suggested in 1974, as a result of findings from the Pioneer 10 spacecraft as it approached the planet. The ring was verified in 1979 by the first Voyager spacecraft when it crossed the planet’s equatorial plane.
Jupiter's main ring is a narrow structure about 6,000 kilometers (about 3,700 miles) in width and about 100,000 times fainter than the planet it encircles. These are the first pictures that NASA's Cassini spacecraft has taken of the ring, a portion of which appears in each frame as an arc opening toward the right.
The rings are composed of small, dark particles, and they are difficult to see except when backlit by the Sun. Data from the Galileo spacecraft indicate that Jupiter's ring system may be formed by dust kicked up as interplanetary meteoroids smash into the giant planet's small innermost moons.
In this wide-field view, Webb sees Jupiter with its faint rings, which are a million times fainter than the planet, and two tiny moons called Amalthea and Adrastea.
Jupiter’s faint rings are likely from meteor bombardment of its moons, sending material into space. However, other stronger ring systems have numerous plausible origins. It’s possible they come from material leftover from the formation of our solar system, captured by the planets.
It consists of four principal components: an outer gossamer ring that fades into invisibility beyond the orbital radius of the satellite Thebe (222,000 km [138,000 miles]); an inner gossamer ring bounded by the orbit of Amalthea (181,000 km [112,000 miles]); the main ring, about 30 km (20 miles) thick, which extends inward from the orbits of ...
For more details on the rings of Jupiter, see the PDS Rings Node Vital Statistics.
Jupiter's ring system is composed of three parts: a flat main ring, a toroidal halo interior to the main ring, and the gossamer ring, which lies exterior to the main ring. Only the main ring and a hint of the surrounding halo can be seen in this mosaic.