Galileo Arrives at Jupiter
Date: 11 Jul 1995
This artist's rendering shows the Galileo orbiter arriving at
Jupiter on Dec. 7, 1995. A few hours before arrival, the orbiter
will have fllew within about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) of
Jupiter's moon lo, shown as the crescent to the left of the
spacecraft. The sun is visible between Io and the spacecraft,
near the spacecraft's long magnetometer. Jupiter is to the right.
A faint white streak above the planet's clouds shows the
atmospheric probe beginning to decelerate before it deploys a
parachute for its scientific mission to collect data. About an hour after the probe mission, Galileo fired it rockets and entered orbit around Jupiter. The mission ended on Sept. 21, 2003 when the orbiter was deliberately destroyed in Jupiter's crushing atmosphere.
Image Credit: NASA