Himalia (moon) - Possible Relationship With Jupiter's Rings

Possible Relationship With Jupiter's Rings

The small moon S/2000 J 11, 4 kilometres in diameter, had gone missing since its discovery in 2000. One theory is that it has crashed into the much larger moon Himalia, 170 kilometres in diameter, creating a faint ring. This possible ring appears as a faint streak near Himalia in images from NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto. This suggests that Jupiter sometimes gains and loses small moons through collisions. However, the recovery of S/2000 J 11 in 2010 and 2011 disproves the link between S/2000 J 11 and the Himalia ring, although it is still possible that a different moon may have been involved.

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