The μ ring may consist entirely of dust, without any large particles at all. This hypothesis is supported by observations performed by the Keck telescope, which failed to detect the μ ring in the near infrared at 2.2 μm, but detected the ν ring. This failure means that the μ ring is blue in color, which in turn indicates that very small (submicrometer) dust predominates within it. The dust may be made of water ice. In contrast, the ν ring is slightly red in color.