Discover Planet Jupiter

Planet Jupiter is the largest planet in our Solar System.

Friday, December 29, 2006

Jupiters Rings

Jupiter has a faint planetary ring system composed of three main components: an inner torus (a doughnut-shaped surface of revolution) of particles known as the halo, a relatively bright main ring, and an outer "gossamer" ring. The main ring is probably made of material ejected from the satellites Adrastea and Metis. Material that would normally fall back to the moon is dragged into Jupiter's orbit due to its strong gravitational pull. The orbit of the material decays towards Jupiter and new material is added by additional impacts. In a similar way, the moons Thebe and Amalthea probably produce the two distinct components of the gossamer ring.

Jupiters Rings

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