Washington: Scientists have discovered a dust ring that stretches about 220 million kilometers) from end to end near Venus orbit.
Study lead author Mark Jones, of The Open University in the United Kingdom, told SPACE.com that the ring can be "seen" 45 degrees either side of the sun.
He asserted that a similar ring had been detected near Earth`s orbit about 20 years ago.
Some of the previous space missions have seen hints of a dust ring near Venus, but proof has not been conclusive.
Jones and his team modeled the way a ring near Venus will scatter light, then searched for the feature in photos taken by NASA`s twin STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) probes, Discovery News reported.
Researchers said that the images showed that a dust ring does exist but looked different than the ring near Earth`s orbit, featuring two distinct "steplike" components. One of the steps is interior to orbit of Venus, while the other lies outside Venus` path around the sun.
