Image of Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede
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Courtesy of NASA
Dust Around Moon Gives Clues to Planetary Rings
News story originally written on June 17, 1999
The space probe, Galileo, found out how rings are formed! Small pellets of dust run into planets and moons. Dust flies off the body into space. Small moons have just enough gravity to hold the dust into orbit. The dust forms clouds and rings!
Scientists used a small tin can on Galileo to measure the speeds of the pellets. They say that all planets and moons are being hit by them. The study was done on Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede.
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