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This Week on Galileo

August 30-September 5, 1999

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Galileo Returns Science Observations Made During
Jupiter's Mid-August Encounter

Galileo spends this week returning science observations made during its encounter with Jupiter and the Galilean moons in mid-August. The observations are stored on the spacecraft's onboard tape recorder. Five observations are on this week's playback schedule, including measurements made by the Fields and Particles instruments, the Solid-State Imaging camera, and the Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer. Data playback is interrupted twice this week. On Monday, the spacecraft performs a standard gyroscope performance test. On Wednesday, the spacraft performs a test on the Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer.

The Fields and Particles instruments continue the return of their high resolution recording of Jupiter's magnetosphere (its plasma, dust, and electric and magnetic field environments) and Io torus. The data will contribute to the study of the dynamic processes within the torus in particular and the magnetosphere in general. The Io torus is a region of intense plasma and radiation activity which is constantly replenished by the volcanic activity on Io. Playback of this observation takes up most of this week's available playback time.

Toward the end of the week, Galileo starts with a second pass through the data stored on the tape recorder. This second pass allows the replay of data lost in transmission to Earth, reprocessing of data using different parameters, or return of additional new data.

The Solid-State Imaging camera returns one observation that was part of the campaign designed to monitor volcanic plume activity on Io. The next two observations returned by the camera contain images of Amalthea, one of Jupiter's inner moons. The images will provide the best spatial resolution ever obtained of the minor moon and will enhance studies of its shape.

The last observation of the week is returned by the Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer. The observation contains measurements describing a white oval in Jupiter's atmosphere. White ovals are long-lived storms that tend to form between two adjacent zonal jet streams.

For more information on the Galileo spacecraft and its mission to Jupiter, please visit the Galileo home page.

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Last updated: August 30, 1999
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