Galileo's Fields and Particles Experiments
As a set, the fields and particles instruments are designed to study numerous phenomena within the magnetosphere of Jupiter. Plasma (as in the Io torus) is a very important ingredient of the magnetosphere. The sources of the plasma are being investigated. Which particles come from the ionosphere of Jupiter, which from the solar wind, and which from the satellites? The plasma interactions with the satellites and particularly the parameters of the Io torus are of interest. The Jovian radiation belts and other structures of the magnetosphere will also be under scrutiny. And it is possible that a plasma wind will be found to flow out from Jupiter at the magnetotail.
Galileo's fields and particles instruments are designed to directly sense and measure the space environment as the spacecraft flies through it. Scientific instruments to measure fields and particles, together with the main antenna, the power supply, the propulsion module, most of the computers and control electronics, are mounted on the spinning section of the Galileo spacecraft. The instruments include magnetometer sensors, mounted on an 11-meter (36-foot) boom to minimize interference from the spacecraft; a plasma instrument detecting low-energy charged particles and a plasma-wave detector to study waves generated by the particles; a high-energy particle detector; and a detector of cosmic and Jovian dust. It also carries the Heavy Ion Counter, an engineering experiment added to assess the potentially hazardous charged-particle environments the spacecraft flies through, and an added Extreme Ultraviolet detector associated with the UV spectrometer on the scan platform.