Galileo Cruises the Inner Jovian System
Galileo is a spacecraft that is orbiting Jupiter. It has been there since 1995. On November 5, 2002, Galileo went very close to Jupiter. It made measurements of the radiation near Jupiter. There is an animation on this page that shows where Galileo went, and what the measurements it made were like.
You need to have the newest version of the Flash player on your computer to see this animation.
Galileo went very close to Jupiter. Jupiter has
moons, but you can only
see the five that are closest to Jupiter
(Adrastea, Metis, Amalthea, Thebe, and Io) in this animation. You can also see Jupiter's
rings. There are three
parts to Jupiter's rings. The Halo Ring is closest to Jupiter. Next is the
Main Ring. The Gossamer Ring is the furthest away from Jupiter.
There is a lot of radiation near Jupiter. There are also very strong magnetic
fields. Most people think that space is empty. The space near Jupiter is not
empty; it is filled with dust and radiation and magnetic fields!
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Galileo was a spacecraft that orbited Jupiter for eight years. It made many discoveries about Jupiter and its moons. Galileo was launched in 1989, and reached Jupiter in 1995. The spacecraft had two parts.
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