NASA

Why does Jupiter have rings? Jupiter's main ring was discovered in 1979 by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) when Voyager 1 passed by the planet. Subsequently, the Galileo spacecraft, which explored Jupiter from 1995 to 2003, confirmed the hypothesis that the ring was formed by the impact of meteoroids on small moons. For example, when a small meteoroid strikes the Metis moon, the impact can cause some of the moon to vaporize, releasing dust and debris into an orbit around Jupiter. This is a photo captured by the James Webb Space Telescope in infrared, which shows not only Jupiter and its clouds but also its rings. To the right of the image, Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) appears relatively bright, while the large moon Europa is located in the center of the diffraction spike on the left, and the shadow of Europa can also be seen next to the Great Red Spot. The cloud layer seen on the right edge of Jupiter appears to be separated, and this phenomenon is still under study.