WASHINGTON (voa) – One of the most remarkable chapters in the history of planetary exploration ended Sunday, September 21, 2003, at 1857 UTC when the American spacecraft Galileo plunged to its demise into the dense atmosphere of Jupiter. The suicide mission was deliberate.
The U.S. space agency is celebrating the end of one of its most successful missions, after the Galileo spacecraft was deliberately burned up in Jupiter’s intense atmosphere.
The space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the U.S. State of California lost contact with the spacecraft at around 1940 GMT Sunday.
NASA sent the aging craft, which was running low on steering propellant, plunging into Jupiter’s intense atmosphere to prevent it from colliding with one of the planet’s moons and contaminating it with germs from Earth.
The dive concludes one of NASA’s most successful endeavors. During its 14 year mission Galileo sent back thousands of images and pieces of data on the solar system’s largest planet and its many moons.
NASA scientists say the probe has traveled 4.6 billion kilometers, and was the first to directly measure Jupiter’s atmosphere. Galileo also discovered evidence of oceans on three of Jupiter’s moons, Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.
Scientists have been amazed by data showing Europa is covered by a frozen ocean and could possibly support some form of life.
The probe also showed that Ganymede is the first moon found to have a strong magnetic field. Icy Callisto was found to be covered by craters, and another moon, Io has dozens of active volcanoes.
Galileo’s adventure was extended three times beyond the end of its original mission six years ago.
The probe’s name was taken from Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, who first viewed Jupiter’s moons through a telescope in the 17th century.
