Department of Energy Argonne National Laboratory Office of Science NEWTON's Homepage NEWTON's Homepage
NEWTON, Ask A Scientist!
NEWTON Home Page NEWTON Teachers Visit Our Archives Ask A Question How To Ask A Question Question of the Week Our Expert Scientists Volunteer at NEWTON! Frequently Asked Questions Referencing NEWTON About NEWTON About Ask A Scientist Education At Argonne The Rings of Jupiter 
Name: Dev
Status: N/A
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 1993 - 1999
Question:
What are the rings of Jupiter composed of.

Replies:
Jupiter's rings are made up of fine dust particles (average size a few microns (that's tiny!), in contrast to Saturn's rings, which are made up of mostly pebble-to-boulder size objects). And unlike Saturn's rings (which are composed primarily of ice), Jupiter's rings are made of rocky material (in powdered form). It appears that this ring material escapes after some time and so must be continually replenished, possibly from meteor bombardment of some of Jupiter's moons or perhaps from material ejected by volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io.

Ron Winther


Click here to return to the Astronomy Archives

NEWTON is an electronic community for Science, Math, and Computer Science K-12 Educators, sponsored and operated by Argonne National Laboratory's Educational Programs, Andrew Skipor, Ph.D., Head of Educational Programs.

For assistance with NEWTON contact a System Operator (help@newton.dep.anl.gov), or at Argonne's Educational Programs

NEWTON AND ASK A SCIENTIST
Educational Programs
Building 360
9700 S. Cass Ave.
Argonne, Illinois
60439-4845, USA
Update: June 2012
Weclome To Newton

Argonne National Laboratory
n b