Today on Galileo - November 8, 1996
Exciting and unusual events are in store for Galileo and its team today. An unsual opportinity will occur this morning to measure the gases that are in the upper part of Jupiter's atmosphere. We will take advantage of Galileo passing behind Jupiter as seen from Earth, and look at how the spacecraft's radio signals are changed as they go through different places in Jupiter's atmosphere. As Galileo goes just behind Jupiter, and when it comes out again, the radio signal will be affected by the gases it passes through, and the amount of change is determined by the kind of gas it goes through. To add some drama to this event, Galileo will be out of communications with Earth for about 5 hours, and we will eagerly await for the first signals again around 9 or 10 AM PST.
In the evening, the spacecraft will enter Jupiter's shadow, and turn back to look at Jupiter's thin rings, which are normally hard to see but visible from the angle we'll be looking from. At the same time, we'll be watching for lightning and aurora on Jupiter. Also, Galileo will image Europa looking for evidence of icy volcanoes.