This Week on Galileo - September 22-28, 1997
Galileo spends the first week of a new cruise period returning data acquired during the recently completed Callisto - Orbit 10 encounter. This cruise period is almost seven weeks long and will end with the start of the final encounter of Galileo's primary mission in early November.
Over the weekend, the spacecraft performed a few final activities associated with the encounter period. On Saturday, the spacecraft turned to point its antenna back toward the Earth (remember a turn was performed for science purposes just prior to the end of the encounter). After the turn, the NIMS (Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer) instrument performed a few more observations of Jupiter's north pole region. Late Saturday, the spacecraft performed the first orbit trim maneuver after the Callisto flyby. Playback started on Sunday and continues through this week.
The playback schedule for this week focuses primarily on observations of Jupiter's north and south pole regions. These observations were designed to look at aurorae and the "hazy" clouds believed to be created by auroral activity. The NIMS team returns a total of 12 observations related to this feature campaign during this week's playback. Six of these are of the north pole and six are of the south pole. The PPR (Photopolarimeter Radiometer) team returns a related observation of the south pole region. The PPR team also returns a regional map of Jupiter's atmosphere. This observation is part of a mission-long campaign to construct a thermal map of Jupiter.
A few observations of Io are also scheduled for return this week. The PPR team returns an observation of Io's thermal properties while the NIMS team returns observations of thermal properties as well as surface chemistry. SSI (Solid State Imaging camera) contributes to the Io mix of observations by returning a partial topographical map of Io.
Much of the latter half of the week is spent returning parts of a high-time resolution recording of fields and particles data performed as the spacecraft passed through the location of Jupiter's magnetic equator. The data provides another snapshot of the properties of Jupiter's magnetosphere.
Filling out this week's playback schedule is a five color global observation of Ganymede performed and returned by SSI. Two minor satellite observations are returned by the NIMS team. These observations of Metis and Adrastea are designed to give scientists clues as to whether these minor satellites are made of the same materials as Jupiter's ring system.