|
|
Article: A Close Encounter With Jupiter Moon; Galileo Spacecraft Swoops Within 517 Miles of Ganymede
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- June 28, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
|
At 2:29 a.m. EDT yesterday, nearly seven years after it was
launched, NASA's glitch-plagued but undaunted Galileo spacecraft
swooped to within 517 miles of Ganymede, the mysterious monster moon
of Jupiter, capturing unprecedented images of features as small as
33 feet across.
Nine of Galileo's 10 instruments were trained on Ganymede,
which at three-fourths the size of Mars is the largest satellite of
any planet in the solar system. It took 35 tense minutes following
the encounter for radio signals to travel 400 million miles back to
the spacecraft's controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, Calif.
When confirmation finally arrived just after midnight local
time, ...