Jupiter's Big Moon Prevents It From Developing Beautiful Rings Like Saturn
It is made of gas, but is more than twice as massive as every other planet in our solar system combined. Surrounded by 79 separate lunar companions, one of which is a prime candidate in the quest to find extraterrestrial life. It was even named after the king of the ancient Roman gods. Jupiter seems to have it all — except the cool rings. For some strange reason, this alpha planet has rings that are to Saturn’s spectacular circle like chopsticks to a tree trunk. Thin. Not significant. “Unlike Saturn’s ice rings, which are full of large chunks of ice and rock, they are made up of tiny dust particles,” according to NASA. Jupiter’s disks are so fragile that we didn’t even notice it until 1979, thanks to the agency’s Voyager 1 spacecraft and, with some luck, perfectly placed sunlight. But on Thursday, researchers beginning to understand why Jupiter has these insane flaws said they may have finally found an answer. Details of their conclusions can be found on arXiv, and will