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Jovian Ring System Mosaic

Sept. 25, 2000
NASA's Galileo spacecraft acquired this mosaic of Jupiter's ring system when the spacecraft was in Jupiter's shadow looking back toward the Sun. Jupiter's ring system is composed of three parts: a gossamer ring, a flat main ring, and a donut-shaped halo.

NASA's Galileo spacecraft acquired this mosaic of Jupiter's ring system (top) when the spacecraft was in Jupiter's shadow looking back toward the Sun. Jupiter's ring system (inset diagram) is composed of three parts: an outermost gossamer ring, a flat main ring, and an innermost donut-shaped halo. These rings are made up of dust-sized particles that are blasted off of the nearby inner satellites by small impacts. This image was taken on November 9, 1996 at a distance of 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles).

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