This Week On Galileo
February 22-28, 1999
This week Galileo continues to playback science data stored on the spacecraft's on-board tape recorder. The data was acquired a few weeks ago during Galileo's close flyby of Europa, Jupiter's icy moon.
This was the last flyby of Europa for the Galileo Europa Mission, and the ninth in a series that began with the last orbit of Galileo's primary mission. Data playback is interrupted once this week to allow the spacecraft to perform standard maintenance on its on-board tape recorder.
Data from six observations are returned this week. Five of these were performed by the spacecraft camera, and one by the fields and particles instruments.
Playback of the fields and particles observation occurs throughout the week, intermingled with the five spacecraft camera observations. The observation contains data on plasma, dust, and magnetic and electric fields, and were recorded during Galileo's closest approach to Europa. The data will improve scientists' understanding of the interactions between Europa and Jupiter's magnetosphere.
The camera's observations all contain images of Europa. The first provides information describing plains near Europa's north pole. The second covers a part of Europa that contains a feature known as Rhadamanthys Linea. This feature is believed to have been formed by cryovolcanic activity, and the data will allow scientists to determine the degree to which this volcanic activity may have occurred. The next three observations capture data on Europa's Pwyll crater, a region of mottled terrain, and a region with specular or mirror-like appearance. Similar regions were observed during Galileo's close flyby of Europa in November 1997, the last of Galileo's primary mission.