This Week on Galileo
May 31-June 6, 1999
Most of the week is spent processing and returning to Earth images and science data acquired during Galileo's previous flyby of Jupiter and Callisto in early May. All of the images were acquired by the solid-state imaging camera. The images show the motions of clouds in Jupiter's north and south equatorial belts and in a high speed jet in the northern hemisphere. In addition, the camera returns an observation of Jupiter's aurora which will allow scientists to measure its vertical structure at high resolution.
The camera also returns observations of Callisto made at different spatial resolutions and designed to gather statistics on the sizes and distribution of craters on Callisto's surface. Scientists will use the information contained in these observations to estimate the age of Callisto's surface and to gain a better understanding of the variations in the distribution of craters in different regions of the surface. Other images to be returned will show a sample of dark terrain, imaged through seven color filters, and a dark feature that is believed to be a cryovolcanic flow. If it is, this latter feature will provide evidence of the kinds of ancient volcanism that once occurred on Callisto's surface. The Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer returns one observation of Callisto this week. It was designed to scan Callisto's bright limb in hopes of detecting and determining the composition of Callisto's tenuous atmosphere.
For more information on the Galileo spacecraft and its mission to Jupiter, please visit the Galileo home page.
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