Galileo: first atmospheric probe and first orbiter of Jupiter
Galileo: primera sonda atmosférica y primer orbitador de Júpiter
- Date
- 7 de diciembre de 1995 · confidence high
- Place
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, United States
- Credited to
- NASA / JPL (with Hughes's entry probe)
- Field
- Movement
What was discovered
Galileo released a probe that descended for 58 minutes into Jupiter's atmosphere and then orbited the planet for eight years. En route it made the first flyby of an asteroid (Gaspra, 1991) and discovered the moon Dactyl, which orbits Ida.
The main antenna failed to deploy, and the craft transmitted with a small antenna at a much reduced rate. Dactyl, imaged in 1993 and identified in 1994, is the first asteroid moon confirmed by imaging; earlier hints (1978, 1993) came from occultations.
What it led to
- Jupiter's atmospheric composition: less water and neon than expected
- evidence of oceans beneath the ice of Europa and Ganymede
- Juno and the Europa Clipper mission