Relationship With Jupiter's Rings
Metis's orbit lies ~1000 km within the main ring of Jupiter. It orbits within a ~500 km wide "gap" or "notch" in the ring. The gap is clearly somehow related to the moon but the origin of this connection has not been established. Metis supplies a significant part of the main ring’s dust. This material appears to consist primarily of material that is ejected from the surfaces of Jupiter's four small inner satellites by meteorite impacts. It is easy for the impact ejecta to be lost from the satellites into space because the satellites' surfaces lie fairly close to the edge of their Roche spheres due to their low density.
Read more about this topic: Metis (moon)
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