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![]() Galileo making longest looping orbit around Jupiter NASA/JPL STATUS REPORT Posted: June 7, 2000
The Fields and Particles instruments continue their survey of Jupiter's magnetosphere, or magnetic environment, and surrounding solar wind this week. This is the third week of a four-week survey, which is an extension of Galileo's typical surveys of the inner magnetosphere. The extension will allow the Fields and Particles instruments to observe the transitions from Jupiter's inner magnetosphere, through the outer magnetosphere, and into the solar wind. In addition, the survey is part of Galileo's preparation for joint activities with the Cassini spacecraft starting in October of this year. Cassini is enroute to an arrival at Saturn in 2004, but will first fly past Jupiter in late December 2000. The flight team turns on the Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer (EUV) toward
the end of the week to perform remote observations of the Io torus. The
torus is a ring-shaped region of intense plasma and radiation activity with
its inner edge bounded by Io's orbit. The activity in the Io torus is
maintained by Jupiter's strong electric and magnetic fields and Io's
constant supply of volcanic particles. The data set obtained by these
observations will be the most complete since early in Galileo's primary
mission. It will allow scientists to continue studying the shape and
energy output of the torus, and to perform long term comparisons with data
obtained over the last 4 years.
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