Fact Sheet
Collision Course
Almost eight years after it entered orbit around Jupiter, the Galileo spacecraft (shown in this artist's concept) will end its mission when it slams into the giant planet early Sunday. Engineers targeted Galileo at Jupiter to ensure that it can never impact Europa, one of Jupiter's large moons. An ocean of liquid water may lie beneath Europa's icy crust, and scientists don't want to risk contaminating the big moon with any microbes from Earth. Galileo has snapped thousands of images of Jupiter and its moons, and transmitted millions of bits of data on the planet's magnetic field and radiation belts. [Credit: NASA/JPL]
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