Goodbye, Galileo

deglr6328 writes "On the 21st of this month the Galileo Space Probe, which has been orbiting Jupiter for nearly eight years, will plummet fatefully into the crushing pressures and searing heat of that planet's interior. The spacecraft's 14 year journey has brought the discovery of, among other things, the first moon orbiting an asteroid, the first remote detection of life on earth when Carl Sagan used data from an onboard infrared spectrometer to observe the spectral signature of Oxygen in our atmosphere, it has caught snowflakes of Sulfur Dioxide as it flew through the plume of an erupting volcano on Io, snapped pictures of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 as it smashed into Jupiter's atmosphere and most importantly, provided proof a >60 Km deep ocean on Europa with hints of oceans on Callisto and Ganymede(listen to Ganymede's eerie sounding plasma wind). And all this with scarcely more computing power than a late '70s video game and a maximum data transfer rate of ~120 bits/s over a distance of more than 600 million Km. In a mission spanning three decades, the Galileo space probe has answered many of humanity's questions about space and presented us with the knowledge to ask many more which will be answered by the next generation of Jovian explorer. Goodnight Galileo."

Comments

Remote Detection Indeed

[screwthemoderators]

Bitterly disapointed, Carl Sagan was never able to detect intelligent life on our planet!

deglr6328 is such a poet

[MikeCapone]

This article almost made me cry.

fair warning

[falsification]

If Galileo is the spark that lights up the gas giant Jupiter, turning it into a second sun, that will be the last straw. We will then have no choice but to make safety the number one priority at NASA.

Re:fair warning

[Captain Nitpick]

If Galileo is the spark that lights up the gas giant Jupiter, turning it into a second sun, that will be the last straw. We will then have no choice but to make safety the number one priority at NASA.

We'd also have to put aside all thoughts of a mission to Europa.

Ganymede's eerie sounding plasma wind

[kuroth]

Sounds to me like the whole moon is infested with Paradroids.

(For the youngin's, here, here, and here.)

Re:Goodbye Galileo

[Anonymous Coward]

Aim for Jupiter...and within!

Data Rate

[t_allardyce]

"maximum data transfer rate of ~120 bits/s"

About the same as all those links will have in 5 minutes ;)

My WinMP wants lic authority for Ganymede song

[Glasswire]

...does anyone know the URL for the Ganymede Dep't of Intellectual Property?

THANK GOD!

[happyhippy]

One less satellite to gain intelligence and come back looking for its creator.

Re:$1.5 billion well spent

[slovin8]

Yes, I'm sure we don't want to pollute Jupiter and its surronding space with harmful gamarays and neutrinos!

Re:WRONG.

[Anonymous Coward]

Foolish Earthling. Totally unprepared for the effects of time travel.

Re:It's not the size. It's how you use it.

[Anonymous Coward]

It is because they did not have Windows then, otherwise they would have had to reboot couple of times a day!

Re:Plop!

[bj8rn]

Heh. That article got it all wrong. Actually, the Illuminati are doing this to protect their diamond monopoly - as everyone knows that the core of Jupiter is a giant diamond.

Last transmission from Galileo

[Morlenden]

E, si muove!

Re:Please tell me..

[lysium]

How on earth am I to interpret > 60 Km?

That's 60,000 meters. Glad I could help.

========

plasma wind?

[Lord_Dweomer]

"(listen to Ganymede's eerie sounding plasma wind)"

Anybody else listen to that and go "HEY! That sounds like seagulls!"

Re:Please tell me..

[Anonymous Coward]

60km is around 300 furlongs, which is around 3000 chains, or almost 12000 rods, or about 12 and a half leagues, or 324 cables.

Glad to be of help.

Re:It's not the size. It's how you use it.

[YetAnotherLogin]

Wow. 6.5 milihertz. You're right. That IS something.