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APOD
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Jupiter's Rings Revealed
Explanation: Why does Jupiter have rings? 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 . As a small meteoroid strikes tiny Adrastea , for example, it will bore into the moon, vaporize, and explode dirt and dust off into a Jovian orbit . Pictured above is an eclipse of the Sun by Jupiter, as viewed from Galileo. Small dust particles high in Jupiter's atmosphere , as well as the dust particles that compose the rings , can be seen by reflected sunlight .
APOD Retrospective: Today and Every Day
| Date | June 17, 2012 |
|---|---|
| Credit | Image Credit: M. Belton ( NOAO ), J. Burns ( Cornell ) et al. , Galileo Project , JPL , NASA |
| Authors & editors: | Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |