Image Title: Satellite Interactions with Jupiter's Ring System Target Name: J Rings Is a satellite of: Jupiter Mission: Galileo Spacecraft: Galileo Orbiter Instrument: Solid State Imaging Produced By: Cornell University Creation Date: 1998-09-15 Primary Data Set: Galileo EDRs Full-Res JPEG: R09_satinc_full.jpg (178 kbytes)

Original Caption Released with Image:

Debris blasted off the satellite Amalthea in high-speed collisions with interplanetary meteoroids will start with slightly inclined orbits like that of Amalthea (yellow lines), forming a slender tube around the satellite trajectory. These orbital paths are not, however, stationary in space but instead wobble about Jupiter's equator like a giant hula-hoop, keeping the same tilt off the equator but continually changing their orientations at rates that differ slightly depending on orbital size and shape. (Two orbits are shown at top.) Thus within a few years of the impact that formed the debris tube, the tube smears out into a thin cylindrical shell at Amalthea's orbital distance (web of lines shown in bottom panel). When viewed from the side within the equatorial plane, this hoop appears to be a thin rectangle. As the particles move to the top of their paths around Jupiter and back down, they pause at their greatest heights off the equatorial plane. Since all the debris particles have the same orbital tilts, this pausing leads to a ring that is slightly denser at the edges than in the equatorial plane. Following the early stages of evolution shown here, the particles will eventually drift inwards as they absorb sunlight, and fill a flat washer-shaped disk.Debris blasted off the satellite Amalthea in high-speed collisions with interplanetary meteoroids will start with slightly inclined orbits like that of Amalthea (yellow lines), forming a slender tube around the satellite trajectory. These orbital paths are not, however, stationary in space but instead wobble about Jupiter's equator like a giant hula-hoop, keeping the same tilt off the equator but continually changing their orientations at rates that differ slightly depending on orbital size and shape. (Two orbits are shown at top.) Thus within a few years of the impact that formed the debris tube, the tube smears out into a thin cylindrical shell at Amalthea's orbital distance (web of lines shown in bottom panel). When viewed from the side within the equatorial plane, this hoop appears to be a thin rectangle. As the particles move to the top of their paths around Jupiter and back down, they pause at their greatest heights off the equatorial plane. Since all the debris particles have the same orbital tilts, this pausing leads to a ring that is slightly denser at the edges than in the equatorial plane. Following the early stages of evolution shown here, the particles will eventually drift inwards as they absorb sunlight, and fill a flat washer-shaped disk.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC.

This image and other images and data received from Galileo are posted on the World Wide Web, on the Galileo mission home page at URL http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo. Background information and educational context for the images can be found at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/sepo.

Image Note:

Related release on Formation of Rings

Relates release on Satellite Inclinations in the Rings

Artist's drawing by Jim Houghton.

This page is not a Planetary PhotoJournal release, but is an illustration provided by the Galileo imaging (SSI) team as further background for other releases of imaging data.

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Galileo Solid State Imaging Team Leader: Dr. Michael J. S. Belton

The SSI Education and Public Outreach webpages were originally created and managed by Matthew Fishburn and Elizabeth Alvarez with significant assistance from Kelly Bender, Ross Beyer, Detrick Branston, Stephanie Lyons, Eileen Ryan, and Nalin Samarasinha.

Last updated: September 17, 1999, by Matthew Fishburn

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