What is the name of the faint ring of dust associated with Jupiter's moon Amalthea?
Answer
Amalthea gossamer ring
Answer
Amalthea gossamer ring
The faint ring of dust associated with Jupiter’s moon Amalthea is the Amalthea gossamer ring.
It is one of Jupiter’s two outer gossamer rings, alongside the Thebe gossamer ring. The ring stretches outward from the region near Jupiter’s main ring to roughly Amalthea’s orbit, making its parent moon central to both its name and origin.
Amalthea is a small, irregular moon with very low surface gravity. Micrometeoroid impacts can knock dust from its surface into orbit around Jupiter. The dust gradually spreads into a broad, faint ring rather than forming a bright, sharply defined band like Saturn’s prominent rings.
A common mix-up is to call this simply the “gossamer ring.” That wording is too general because Jupiter has separate Amalthea and Thebe gossamer rings. The Thebe ring lies farther out and is associated with the moon Thebe. The Amalthea ring is also much fainter than Jupiter’s main ring, with dust particles typically measured in micrometre-sized ranges.
Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026