PIA09342: Jupiter's Rings: Sharpest View
Target Name: Jupiter
Is a satellite of: Sol (our sun)
Mission: New Horizons
Spacecraft: New Horizons
Instrument: LORRI
Product Size: 3000 samples x 2025 lines
Produced By: Johns Hopkins University/APL
Full-Res TIFF: PIA09342.tif (6.083 MB)
Full-Res JPEG: PIA09342.jpg (482.6 kB)

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Original Caption Released with Image:

The New Horizons spacecraft took the best images of Jupiter's charcoal-black rings as it approached and then looked back at Jupiter. The top image was taken on approach, showing three well-defined lanes of gravel- to boulder-sized material composing the bulk of the rings, as well as lesser amounts of material between the rings. New Horizons snapped the lower image after it had passed Jupiter on February 28, 2007, and looked back in a direction toward the sun. The image is sharply focused, though it appears fuzzy due to the cloud of dust-sized particles enveloping the rings. The dust is brightly illuminated in the same way the dust on a dirty windshield lights up when you drive toward a "low" sun. The narrow rings are confined in their orbits by small "shepherding" moons.

Image Credit:
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute