Galileo spacecraft orbits JupiterIn 1995, the Galileo spacecraft arrived at Jupiter and entered orbit after 6 years years of travel including a flyby of Venus and two asteroids, Gaspra and Ida. The orbiter had also carried an atmospheric probe with scientific instruments, which it had released from the main spacecraft in Jul 1995, five months before reaching Jupiter Galileo then spent a further 8 years examining Jupiter and its moons Io and Europa. In 1994, the Galileo orbiter was present to watch the fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crash into Jupiter. Its mission was concluded 21 Sep 2003 by sending the orbiter into Jupiter's atmosphere at a speed of nearly 50 km/sec, destroying it to avoid any chance of it contaminating local moons with bacteria from Earth.« |
