Jupiter's Shadow Sculpts Its Rings
The Galileo spacecraft's 14-year odyssey came to an end on Sunday, Sept. 21, when the
spacecraft passed into Jupiter's shadow then disintegrated in the planet's dense atmosphere at
11:57 a.m. (PDT). The Deep Space Network tracking station in Goldstone, Calif., received the
last signal at 12:43:14 (PDT). The delay is due to the time it takes the signal to travel to
Earth.
The spacecraft was purposely put on a collision course with Jupiter because the onboard
propellant was nearly depleted and to eliminate any chance of an unwanted impact between
the spacecraft and Jupiter's moon Europa, which Galileo discovered is likely to have a
subsurface ocean.
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