21st Century Complete Guide to Jupiter and the Galileo Mission: Europa, IO, Ganymede, Callisto, Moons and Satellites, Great Red Spot, Asteroids

9781931828291

1931828296

The Galileo spacecraft was launched from the Space Shuttle in 1989, arriving at Jupiter in 1995. Since then, the mission of the highly successful explorer has been extended repeatedly. The spacecraft is now nearly out of the hydrazine propellant needed to keep its antenna pointed toward Earth. Knowing they would eventually lose contact and control of the spacecraft, the Galileo team chose the planned impact with Jupiter in September 2003 to ensure there was no chance the spacecraft might hit Europa. One of Galileo's important discoveries has been the likelihood of a melted saltwater ocean under Europa's icy crust, making that moon of great interest for future study of the possibility of extraterrestrial life. This collection of Galileo material tells the story of its amazing journey. Illustrated with hundreds of color photographs, every aspect of the historic Galileo mission is covered: * Moons and Satellites, including Europa, Io, Ganymede, and Callisto; * The Great Red Spot on Jupiter; * Images and reports on unlocking Jupiter's mysteries; * Asteroids encountered and photographed during the trip to Jupiter; * The impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 into Jupiter. Jupiter reigns supreme among our nine planets, containing two-thirds of the planetary mass of the solar system. In composition it resembles a small star. Its interior pressure may reach 100 million times the pressure on Earth's surface. Jupiter's magnetic field is immense, even in proportion to the size of the planet, stretching millions of miles into the solar system. Electrical activity in Jupiter is so strong that it pours billions of watts into Earth's own magnetic field every day. Jupiter is endowed with 16 moons, a ring system, and an immense, complex atmosphere. Its atmosphere bristles with lightning and swirls with huge storm systems, including the Great Red Spot, a storm that has persisted for at least 100 years, perhaps as long as 300 years. Some scientists theorize that beneath the atmosphere there is no solid mass at the center of Jupiter, but that the planet's unique temperature and pressure conditions sustain a core whose density is more like liquid or slush. Our CD-ROMs are designed to provide a convenient user-friendly reference work, utilizing the benefits of the Acrobat format to uniformly present thousands of pages that can be rapidly reviewed or printed without untold hours of tedious searching and downloading. Vast archives of important government information that might otherwise remain inaccessible are available for instant review. This book-on-a-disc makes a superb reference work and educational tool.