This Week on Galileo - August 11-17, 1997
Galileo's attention this week is solely focused on playing back data from the spacecraft's on-board tape recorder. Currently playing: observations of Jupiter's magnetic field, and aurorae (on Earth, what are known as the northern and southern lights). Having passed through apojove (the farthest point from Jupiter) for the current orbit, the spacecraft starts its return toward the giant planet, but is not scheduled to arrive at its next satellite encounter, with Callisto, until September 17.
The first observations from the current campaign of magnetotail observations continue to be transmitted to Earth this week. This campaign of observations is comprised primarily of high time resolution recordings of fields and particles data taken on the "outbound" portion of the current orbit at distances from Jupiter of 65 Jupiter Radii, or about 4.6 million kilometers (2.9 million miles), 108 Jupiter Radii (7.7 million kilometers, 4.8 million miles), 130 Jupiter Radii (9.3 million kilometers, 5.8 million miles) and 143 Jupiter Radii (10.2 million kilometers, 6.4 million miles). On the inbound leg, observations are only planned at 130 Jupiter Radii.
This campaign will allow the fields and particles instruments to explore the middle and outer jovian magnetosphere. These instruments will study Jupiter's magnetic fields and electric currents as well as the flow patterns of the particles and plasma that are contained within. The observations returned this week contain data gathered at 65 and 108 Jupiter Radii.
An auroral map taken by NIMS (Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer) at about the same time as the 65 Jupiter Radii fields and particles observation will also be returned this week. These maps will allow the fields and particles data to be compared to auroral activity on Jupiter to determine if there is a connection between the two.