Voyager 1 confirmed the existence of a ring around Jupiter. During its 1979 encounter, the spacecraft returned the first direct image of Jupiter’s faint ring system, making it the first probe to observe the rings directly.
The discovery was especially challenging because Jupiter’s rings are made mostly of dark dust and are far less reflective than Saturn’s spectacular rings. Voyager 1’s first image was overexposed, but it nevertheless revealed the ring system. Voyager 2 later gathered more detailed images and helped clarify the rings’ structure.
Pioneer 11 had previously provided indirect evidence for material near Jupiter by studying the planet’s radiation environment, but it did not make the direct visual discovery. Galileo, which arrived in the 1990s, conducted a much more extensive investigation. Jupiter’s system includes a halo ring, a main ring, and two outer gossamer rings associated with the moons Amalthea and Thebe.