Galileo Mission Status - December 18, 1996

PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
     

NASA's Galileo spacecraft has started making high-resolution scientific measurements of the Jupiter system as it begins its swooping, low pass of Jupiter and the Jovian moon Europa. Galileo is primed for close flyby of Europa at 10:53 p.m. Pacific time tonight, which falls on Thursday, Dec. 19 at 1:53 a.m. Eastern time. The spacecraft will fly about 700 kilometers (about 435 miles) above Europa's surface. The encounter will be more than 200 times closer than the Voyager spacecraft came to Europa in 1979.

Europa is especially intriguing because scientists believe it may have an ocean beneath its icy crust. Scientists hope Galileo's close-ups of Europa will provide new details about what might exist beneath the surface ice.

Galileo will conduct scientific observations of Europa and the other satellites, as well as Jupiter and its magnetosphere through Dec. 22. The encounter data stored on Galileo's tape recorder will begin to be played back on Dec. 22 and concluded in mid-February 1997, just before Galileo's next Europa encounter. The observations will include images, nighttime and daytime temperature measurements, searches for auroral activity, the magnetic field, atmospheric studies and investigations of the charged-particle environment in Europa's vicinity.

The next Europa flyby will be even closer at an altitude of a mere 587 kilometers (364 miles) on February 19, 1997 (Pacific time). The spacecraft's third flyby of Europa will occur on Nov. 6, 1997, at an altitude of 1,125 kilometers (699 miles).

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