Now if you were like me, this might come to you as a huge surprise because whenever one thinks about Jupiter one is not used to visualizing it with rings around it, but rather as a huge gas giant.

The rings are not prominent

Unlike Saturn’ rings which are bright, the discovery of Jupiter’s wings had to wait till 1979.

This is so because the rings are faint and are only visible only when viewed behind Jupiter and lit up by the sun.

How are they formed ?

Jupiter’s rings are formed from dust particles hurled up by micro-meteor
impacts on Jupiter’s small inner moons and captured into orbit.

If the
impacts on the moons were any larger, then the larger dust thrown up
would be pulled back down to the moon’s surface by gravity (meaning that the dust would not have enough velocity to escape the surface).

The main and halo rings consist of dust ejected from the moons Metis, Adrastea, and other unobserved parent bodies as the result of high-velocity impacts

The rings
must constantly be replenished with new dust from the moons to exist.

Actually, there are quite a bit about these rings that we are still in the dark about. And hopefully these would become clearer in the upcoming years.

Have a great day!