On this day 46 years ago, March 7, 1979 (February 9, 1979 in the lunar calendar), Voyager 1 discovered that Jupiter is a planet with rings. Photos of Jupiter taken by Voyager 1 March 7, 1979, the Voyager 1 spacecraft has identified an insignificant layer of debris around the planet Jupiter, scientists at the Jet Propulsion Research Laboratory in Basadena, California announced today. The discovery was the first major surprise discovery of the Voyager 1 mission to Jupiter. Eleven exposure photos taken 16 hours before the spacecraft reached its closest point near Jupiter showed that the ring looked like a faint white belt, which scientists calculated to be only 18 miles thick and 5000 miles wide. In this way, Jupiter became another planet with rings in addition to Saturn and Uranus. Astronomers have known as early as 1610 that Saturn has rings. Uranus's rings were discovered in 1977. Photos of Saturn taken by Voyager 1