Jupiters rings : Jupiters three rings came as a surprise when NASAs Voyager 1 spacecraft discovered them around the planets equator in 1979. Each are much fainter than Saturns rings. The main ring is flattened. It is about 20 miles (30 km) thick and more than 4,000 miles (6,400 km) wide. The inner cloud-like ring, called the halo, is roughly 12,000 miles (20,000 km) thick. The halo extends halfway from the main ring down to the planets cloud tops and expands by interaction with Jupiters magnetic field. Both the main ring and halo are composed of small, dark particles. The third ring, known as the gossamer ring because of its transparency, is actually three rings of microscopic debris from three of Jupiters moons, Amalthea, Thebe and Adrastea. It is probably made up of dust particles less than 10 microns in diameter, about the same size of the particles found in cigarette smoke, and extends to an outer edge of about 80,000 miles (129,000 km) from the center of the planet and inward to about 18,600 miles (30,000 km).
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 04:20:42 +0000
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