ad info

CNN.com
 MAIN PAGE
 WORLD
 ASIANOW
 U.S.
 LOCAL
 POLITICS
 WEATHER
 BUSINESS
 SPORTS
 TECHNOLOGY
   computing
   personal technology
   space
 NATURE
 ENTERTAINMENT
 BOOKS
 TRAVEL
 FOOD
 HEALTH
 STYLE
 IN-DEPTH

 Headline News brief
 daily almanac
 CNN networks
 CNN programs
 on-air transcripts
 news quiz

  CNN WEB SITES:
CNN Websites
 TIME INC. SITES:
 MORE SERVICES:
 video on demand
 video archive
 audio on demand
 news email services
 free email accounts
 desktop headlines
 pointcast
 pagenet

 DISCUSSION:
 message boards
 chat
 feedback

 SITE GUIDES:
 help
 contents
 search

 FASTER ACCESS:
 europe
 japan

 WEB SERVICES:
Space

Galileo sends back details of Jupiter's rings

Jupiter's rings
Jupiter's ring system (top) and its transparent ring  

Complex, swirling and dusty ... but no ice

September 15, 1998
Web posted at: 7:34 p.m. EDT (2334 GMT)

(CNN) -- As it orbits the planet Jupiter, the spacecraft Galileo is sending back details not only about the planet and its moons, but also about its little-known rings.

While Saturn is best known for its rings, the images Galileo is sending back reveal a complex, swirling ring system around Jupiter, the biggest planet in the solar system.

Scientists from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and at the National Optical Astronomy Observatories in Tucson, Arizona, said Tuesday that the rings were formed by huge amounts of dust kicked up as small meteors crash into Jupiter's four small inner moons.

The scientists said that the rings serve as dynamic laboratories to help them understand how the solar system was formed billions of years ago.

They also say that unlike the rings around Saturn, Jupiter's rings do not contain ice.

Galileo has also sent back pictures of Jupiter's four inner moons, which appear to be dark red and covered with craters from meteor impacts.

3rd ring proves to be 2 rings

The images Galileo has been sending back in its two-and-a-half years of orbiting Jupiter have improved on the information sent back by the Voyager expedition in the late 1970s.

Voyager revealed that Jupiter's rings include a flattened, main ring, and an inner, cloud-like ring called a halo.

But one Voyager image also included what appeared to be a faint, third ring farther away from Jupiter than the other two.

The pictures Galileo has sent back reveal that there is, indeed, a third ring, and not only is it transparent, but it is also two rings -- one embedded in the other.

The images are available on the Internet.

Related stories:
Latest Headlines

Today on CNN

Related sites:

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

CNN Programs

  • Earth Matters
        Sunday 1:30pm - 2:00pm ET (10:30am - 11:00am PT)
  • Science & Technology Week
        Saturday 1:30pm - 2:00pm ET (10:30am - 11:00am PT)
    SEARCH CNN.com
    Enter keyword(s)   go    help

  •   
     

    Back to the top
    © 2000 Cable News Network. All Rights Reserved.
    Terms under which this service is provided to you.
    Read our privacy guidelines.