Jupiter's rings

Jupiter's RingsJupiter's Rings

Jupiter's rings

A system of planetary rings composed of small rocky particles discovered around Jupiter in 1979 as the spacecraft Voyager 1 moved inside the orbit of the satellite Amalthea. There are three named rings: the vertically extended Halo Ring, the brighter Main Ring, and the tenuous Gossamer Ring (see table). Data from the Galileo probe showed that the Gossamer ring is actually two rings, one embedded within the other, composed of debris from Almathea and Thebe. The satellite Metis is embedded in the Main Ring, while Adrastea orbits close to its gradual outer boundary.