WASHINGTON (voa) – NASA will bring an era in space exploration to an end Thursday, as the Galileo space probe takes one final swing past the major moons of Jupiter before heading for its own destruction.
Galileo will fly within 100-kilometers of the colorful moon, Io. This will be the closest the probe has ever come to Jupiter’s four major moons since it arrived in Jupiter’s orbit six years ago.
Io is the biggest of Jupiter’s moons and nearest to the planet’s surface. Scientists are especially interested in the moon’s volcanoes. Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system.
After Thursday’s fly-by, Galileo will begin a year and a-half-long path towards self-destruction. Its fuel supply is nearly gone since being launched into orbit from the Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1989 to take pictures of Jupiter.
NASA says that despite occasional camera malfunctions, Galileo has held up longer than expected – withstanding more than three times the radiation from Jupiter that it was designed to endure. Engineers on Earth have programmed Galileo to slam into Jupiter sometime in September of 2003.
