Shepherd Moons
July 16, 2007
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The New Horizons spacecraft took the best images of Jupiter's charcoal-black rings as it approached and then looked back at Jupiter in February 2007. This sequence of pictures from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) shows the well-defined lanes of gravel- to boulder-sized material composing the bulk of the rings; labels point out how these narrow rings are confined in their orbits by small “shepherding†moons (Metis and Adrastea).
The New Horizons spacecraft took the best images of Jupiter's charcoal-black rings as it approached and then looked back at Jupiter in February 2007. This sequence of pictures from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) shows the well-defined lanes of gravel- to boulder-sized material composing the bulk of the rings; labels point out how these narrow rings are confined in their orbits by small “shepherding†moons (Metis and Adrastea).
Topics:
New Horizons, Metis, Moons of Jupiter, Pluto, Exploration of Jupiter, Inner moon, Planetary ring, Adrastea, natural satellite, Io, Jupiter
