Abstract
SHORTLY before closest approach to Jupiter, the imaging experiment on board Voyager 1 detected a ring of particulate matter around the planet as the spacecraft crossed the equatorial plane of Jupiter. The radial position of the ring is at approximately 1.7 RJ (jovian radii), the total ring thickness is reported to be ≲30 km and the radial extent ≲104 km (refs 1, 2). Although this discovery was rather unexpected, the possible existence of a dust belt within the orbit of the innermost satellite, Amalthea, actually had been suspected as a result of the Pioneer 11 measurement of the jovian trapped radiation belt3,4. In this note we briefly outline this interesting observation and evaluate some of the basic properties of this newly discovered ring.
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IP, WH. On the Pioneer 11 observation of the ring of Jupiter. Nature 280, 478–479 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1038/280478a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/280478a0
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