Today on Galileo - September 10, 1996
The Orbit Trim Manuever(OTM) that started yesterday will continue this morning, with Galileo now 35 Jupiter radius distances from Jupiter, and heading further out. Galileo is now 713 million km from Earth. At the end of this manuever, the spacecraft will be headed on its course for the Callisto-3 flyby (with the help of two more OTM's on October 8 and November 1).
At the end of the day, the Fields and Particles Instruments gear up for critical observations of Galileo's crossing of the plasma sheet. The Magnetometer will look at electric currents in the magnetic field (these electric currents may contribute to aurora on Jupiter). The composition of the plasma in that area will be observed by the PLS instrument. All the instruments will join in an investigation of particle accelerations, wave particle interactions, and characteristics of the hot plasmas surrounding Jupiter near the magnetic equator.
After this final Fields and Particles investigation, the spacecraft will enter its standard cruise mode and initiate playback of the data acquired during the previous week.
This will be the final entry for the G2 encounter. Check back at the beginning of November, when we will resume "Today on Galileo" for the Callisto-3 encounter on November 9.