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By 1976, we did know that Uranus has rings, and Neptune had ring "arcs". Jupiter's rings were not discovered until the flyby of Voyager.
After Voyager passed by Jupiter, with the sun backlighting the planet, a single ring was discovered. This is the same for Neptune. When Voyager 2 passed, it looked back towards the sun and saw the ring "arcs" were really just clumped areas within the rings.
I hope this helps. Good luck.

2007-09-10 10:32:16 · answer #1 · answered by ngc7331 6 · 0 0

Galileo Galilei was the first person known to have reported observations of Saturn's rings, in 1610.

The rings of Jupiter were first observed in 1979 by the Voyager 1 spaceprobe.

Uranus: The ring system was definitively discovered on March 10, 1977 by James L. Elliot, Edward W. Dunham, and Douglas J. Mink using the Kuiper Airborne Observatory.

Neptune:The first indication of rings around Neptune were stellar occultation observations. However, although about 50 were tracked prior to the Voyager 2 flyby, only five in the early 1980s gave any indication of rings, showing an extra "blink" just before or after the planet occulted the star. This was evidence that the rings are incomplete (or transient).

The flyby of Neptune by Voyager 2 in 1989 provided nearly all of our current knowledge about the rings, and also settled the incompleteness issue by imaging the ring arcs.

2007-09-10 17:20:52 · answer #2 · answered by snakekeeper27 4 · 0 0

Considering the fact that these rings were discovered by the Voyager 2 space probe, obviously not.

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Slight correction, the rings of Uranus were discoverd before Voyager 2 got there, but it was not until 1977 that it was certain that these rings existed.

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...William Herschel claimed to have seen rings at Uranus in 1789 (see below), however this is doubtful as in the two following centuries no rings were noted by other observers. The ring system was definitively discovered on March 10, 1977 by James L. Elliot, Edward W. Dunham, and Douglas J. Mink using the Kuiper Airborne Observatory. The discovery was serendipitous; they planned to use the occultation of the star SAO 158687 by Uranus to study the planet's atmosphere. However, when their observations were analyzed, they found that the star had disappeared briefly from view five times both before and after it disappeared behind the planet....

2007-09-10 17:18:12 · answer #3 · answered by Randy G 7 · 0 0

we would have known about the rings of uranus, not the other 2.

jupiters was discoverd in 1979, neptunes in the early 80's

way to copy directly from wikipedia snakekeeper.

2007-09-10 17:21:30 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Yes, but it ISN'T 1976 AND we still don't know much... at least I don't... I guess I'll just be ignert my whole life... pay no attention to the silly man or his answer...

2007-09-10 17:26:24 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0 1

nope

2007-09-10 17:21:53 · answer #6 · answered by Rahrah 4 · 0 0

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