Dec 16 1997
From The Space Library
The Galileo spacecraft made the closest ever flyby of Jupiter's moon Europa and earned a place in space history by becoming the first spacecraft to orbit an outer planet. Galileo came within 124 miles (200 kilometers) of Europa, gathering images of what looked liked an icy ocean beneath the moon's frozen crust. The prospect of water on the moon's surface excited scientists, who had identified Europa's climate as unique among the moons and planets of the galaxy. The images of the possible ocean seemed to show signs of "slushy material" pushing up against the surface ice, a sign of a heated core. The flyby was the first encounter to occur during Galileo's two-year extension to its original mission. According to press accounts, Galileo, launched in 1989, had already gathered enough data to force scientists to "rewrite textbooks."
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