Each of the four gas giants in the Earth’s solar system — Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, and Jupiter — are surrounded by rings made up of “billions of particles of rock, ice and dust,” as explained by the University of Colorado at Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. The two rings around Jupiter may be fed by loose material blowing off its four, large moons.

Jupiter is a bigger, more visible planet than Saturn, but its rings pale in comparison to the sixth planet from the sun’s — but now researchers have developed a theory as to why. On July 21, 2022, UC Riverside published its findings, saying that it may actually be the four giant moons around Jupiter's orbit that are stopping it from showing its rings as easily as Saturn’s.

The report noted that the loose material found in Jupiter's rings might be colliding with the moons or could even be disbursed out of Jupiter's orbit by the gravitational pull of the moons. UC Riverside astrophysicist Stephen Kane clarified, saying, “We found that the Galilean moons of Jupiter … would very quickly destroy any large rings that might form.”