Why does Jupiter have rings? Jupiter’s main ring was discovered in 1979 by NASA’s Voyager 1 probe, but its origin was a mystery at the time. However, data from NASA’s Galileo probe, which orbited Jupiter between 1995 and 2003, supported the hypothesis that the ring was formed by meteoroid impacts on small nearby moons. When a small meteoroid hits little Metis, for example, it burrows into the Moon, vaporizes, and explodes dirt and dust into Jovian orbit.
An infrared image of Jupiter from the James Webb Space Telescope shows not only Jupiter and its clouds, but also this ring. Also visible is Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS) – in relatively light color on the right, Jupiter’s large moon Europa – in the middle of the diffraction peaks on the left, and Europa’s shadow – next to the GRS. Several features in the image are not yet well understood, including an apparently detached layer of clouds on Jupiter’s right limb.
For more read: https://www.nasa.gov/
