Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The main ring was discovered in 1979 by the Voyager 1 space probe [1] and the system was more thoroughly investigated in the 1990s by the Galileo orbiter. [2] The main ring has also been observed by the Hubble Space Telescope and from Earth for several years. [3] Ground-based observation of the rings requires the largest available telescopes. [4]
Big Ring. The Big Ring is a ring-shaped large-scale structure formed by galaxies and galaxy clusters near the constellation Boötes with a diameter of 1.3 billion light years, located 9.2 billion light years away. [1] It was discovered in 2024 by Alexia Lopez, a PhD student at the University of Central Lancashire. [2]
A ring system is a disc or torus orbiting an astronomical object that is composed of solid material such as gas, dust, meteoroids, planetoids or moonlets and stellar objects. Ring systems are best known as planetary rings, common components of satellite systems around giant planets such as of Saturn, or circumplanetary disks.
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined and slightly less than one-thousandth the mass of the Sun.
The main rings are, working outward from the planet, C, B and A, with the Cassini Division, the largest gap, separating Rings B and A. Several fainter rings were discovered more recently. The D Ring is exceedingly faint and closest to the planet. The narrow F Ring is just outside the A Ring. Beyond that are two far fainter rings named G and E.
Two additional rings were discovered in 1986 in images taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft, and two outer rings were found in 2003–2005 in Hubble Space Telescope photos. In the order of increasing distance from the planet the 13 known rings are designated 1986U2R/ζ, 6, 5, 4, α, β, η, γ, δ, λ, ε, ν and μ.
The Day the Earth Smiled. Earth can be seen as a blue dot underneath the rings of Saturn. The photomosaic from NASA's "Wave at Saturn" campaign. The collage includes some 1,600 photos taken by members of the public on The Day the Earth Smiled. The Day the Earth Smiled is a composite photograph taken by the NASA spacecraft Cassini on July 19, 2013.
A pair of Voyager 2 images of Neptune's ring system. The first mention of rings around Neptune dates back to 1846 when William Lassell, the discoverer of Neptune's largest moon, Triton, thought he had seen a ring around the planet. [2] However, his claim was never confirmed and it is likely that it was an observational artifact.