Illustration of a Dusty Inner Solar System (IMAGE)

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Illustration of a Dusty Inner Solar System

Caption

In this illustration, several dust rings circle the sun. These rings form when planets' gravities tug dust grains into orbit around the sun. Recently, scientists have detected a dust ring at Mercury's orbit. Others hypothesize the source of Venus' dust ring is a group of never-before-detected co-orbital asteroids.

Credit

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith

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