The planet Jupiter has 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 and the system was more thoroughly investigated in the 1990s by the Galileo orbiter. The main ring has also been observed by the Hubble Space Telescope and from Earth for several years. Ground-based observation of the rings requires the largest available telescopes.
A schema of Jupiter's ring system showing the four main components. For simplicity, Metis and Adrastea are depicted as sharing their orbit. (In reality, Metis is very slightly closer to Jupiter.)
The upper image shows the main ring in back-scattered light as seen by the New Horizons spacecraft. The fine structure of its outer part is visible. The lower image shows the main ring in forward-scattered light demonstrating its lack of any structure except the Metis notch.
Image of the main ring obtained by Galileo in forward-scattered light. The Metis notch is clearly visible.
Schematic illustrating the formation of Jupiter's rings
A ring system is a disc or ring, orbiting an astronomical object, that is composed of solid material such as dust and moonlets, and is a common component of satellite systems around giant planets like Saturn. A ring system around a planet is also known as a planetary ring system.
The ring orbiting Saturn consists mostly of chunks of ice and dust. The small dark spot on Saturn is the shadow from Saturn's moon Enceladus.
A Galileo image of Jupiter's main ring.
A Cassini mosaic of Saturn's rings.
A pair of Voyager 2 images of Neptune's rings.
