This Week On Galileo
October 26-November 1, 1998
Galileo spends this week processing and returning science images and information gathered at the end of September during its most recent flyby of Europa. Playback of this data, stored on the spacecraft's onboard tape recorder, is interrupted once this week to perform regular maintenance on the spacecraft's propulsion system.
This week's playback schedule contains data from the spacecraft camera, the near-infrared mapping spectrometer, the ultraviolet spectrometer and the photopolarimeter radiometer.
First on the schedule are two regional maps taken by the camera near Europa's terminator (or imaginary line separating Europa's sunlit side from its dark side). The regions are previously unexplored and include areas of the moon found at high southern latitudes. The images are complementary with data gathered during Galileo's May encounter with Europa. The camera also returns one of three observations of Jupiter's rings. Each observation was taken under different lighting conditions (or solar phase angle), which will allow scientists to get a better idea of the number and sizes of the particles that make up the rings.
The three observations returned by the photopolarimeter radiometer are views of the night side of Europa and contain data on thermal variations across the surface. The data will allow scientists to increase their knowledge of how the surface of Europa was formed, how old it is and what it is made of.
Finally, the near-infrared mapping spectrometer and ultraviolet spectrometer return a joint observation of Europa. The observation returns information on the ultraviolet and near-infrared spectral properties of the surface at a global scale.