This Week on Galileo - April 28-May 3, 1997
This week is the final week for playback of data from Galileo's previous encounter with Ganymede. Observations taken during closest approach to Ganymede are again highlighted on this week's playback schedule. These data include observations of the bright, dark and dark-rayed regions popular with the remote sensing instruments, and high resolution magnetospheric data acquired by the fields and particles instruments for an hour or so around the closest approach to Ganymede.
Other data returned this week include observations from the flyby of Europa. Close enough for regional observations, these data are comprised of lineated and circular regions and will be used to determine the origin of these features. At the same time, the data will be used in the construction of a global map of Europa at regional resolution. Regional observations of Jupiter are also returned this week. These data will be used in the construction of a global map of Jupiter. A few remaining observations from the remote sensing instrument campaign to study a small red spot in Jupiter's atmosphere, a couple observations of a hot spot on Jupiter and a single image of Adrastea complete the playback plans for the week.
For its next encounter, Galileo will have another close flyby of Ganymede; the last for the remainder of the orbital tour. The flight team will transmit the first set of commands for the encounter to the spacecraft this Thursday. The fields and particles instrument survey of Jupiter's magnetosphere is resumed on Friday. This resumption also marks the start of the second magnetosphere mini-tour (a "mini-tour" is a portion of the fields and particles survey that is more than one complete orbit in duration). On Sunday, just prior to the start of the encounter observations, the commands for the last orbit trim maneuver prior to the Ganymede flyby will also be transmitted to the spacecraft. Encounter observations are scheduled to start late Sunday night.
Come back Sunday for the return of Today on Galileo!