|
|
JUPITER'S RING: 1997 RPX
Keck image of the Jovian ring at a wavelength of 2.3 micrometer. The ring is visible in reflected sunlight. These observations were taken with the Keck telescope in aug. 1997, during the ring plane crossing, so the rings appear edge-on. The main ring is visible in red-yellow; the halo in green-blue; the gossamer Amalthea ring in light-blue and the gossamer Thebe ring in dark-blue. (Ref. de Pater, I., M.R. Showalter, J.A. Burns, P.D. Nicholson, M.C. Liu, D.P. Hamilton, and J.R. Graham, 1999. Keck infrared observations of Jupiter's ring system near Earth's 1997 ring plane crossing. Icarus, vol. 138, pp. 214-223).
Jupiter's gosamer rings: Comparison of the Keck observations with a Galileo image and a model from M. Showalter. These data show that the rings are formed from meteorite impacts on Amalthea and Thebe. (see Burns, J.A., D.P. Hamilton, M.R. Showalter, P.D. Nicholson, I. de Pater, and P.C. Thomas, 1999. The formation of Jupiter's faint rings. Science, vol. 284}, pp. 1146-1150.).