Galieo Writing Piece

How have the discoveries of the spacecraft Galileo Impact our Understanding of our solar system?

Julyan F. S. Grant April 1, 2009 Wrightstown Elementary School Ms. Mclaughlin

How have the discoveries of the spacecraft Galileo Impact our Understanding of our solar system?

In the year of 1989 the spacecraft Galileo blasted off into space on the shuttle Atlantis to discover more information about Jupiter and its moons. The spacecraft Galileo was named after a famous astronomer named Galileo who discover the Galilean moons. NASA’s goal was to use planets Venus and Earth to gain speed so that the space probe could gain information about our solar system 4 billion years ago. On Galileo’s journey, NASA was able to find information about asteroids and more details about the Galilean moons of Jupiter. Last NASA found interesting facts on Jupiter itself and how Jupiter plays an important role in our Solar system. The first thing Galileo did was whip around Venus and Earth till it was flying full speed out to Jupiter. Along its way the spacecraft was able to get some high-quality pictures of asteroids like Ida and Gaspra, but able to reach Jupiter in December 1995. At this point the spacecraft discovered the 2 Galilean moons which where Io, and Europa. The closest moon to Jupiter was Io which is known as the most unfriendly moon because it is made up of sulfur, gas, and lava. This moon has 150 active volcanoes that spew hot lava that is hotter than the lava on planet Earth. Io is the most active volcanic body of mass in the solar system. Io has taught man kind how planets can be extremely hot even though they are not close to the sun. The Next moon in line that the spacecraft Galileo also studied was the moon Europa. Europa is an interesting moon that is very different from its other siblings by because the moon is covered in moving plates of ice. Europa has a salty ocean under its surface that contains more water than Earth. Since there are cracks between the solid plates of ice, Europa is able to have a small atmosphere that has

oxygen. Scientists have now learned that there are other places outside our planet that have more water than us. Both moons have very distinctive characteristics. The last two Galilean moons are Ganymede, and Callisto, which have similar traits. Ganymede is the largest moon in our solar system and is bigger than the planets Mercury, and Pluto. The Galileo spacecraft has discovered that Ganymede also has oceans under its surface that are kind of like Europa, but the difference is that its surface is made up of meteorite craters. Another thing is that makes Ganymede special is that it has its own magnetism. The last Galilean moon that the Galileo spacecraft studied was Callisto. Callisto is the most mysteries moon discovered and houses many clues about the past. This moon unlike others is the oldest moon which was formed four-billion years ago. The most mysteries part about this moon is that there is a huge black blanket with many craters on the surface, also there might be an ocean deep in the middle of it that would not affect its surface. The weird part about this moon is that its core hast to be made up of water, but still has a magnetic field. Scientist says that the electrical current from Jupiter could create a magnetic field from the ocean in Callisto. Both moons have things in common but both have interesting characteristics. After the spacecraft Galileo learnt about the moons, it was able to study interesting facts of Jupiter by orbiting many times. In 2003 Galileo sent a probe into Jupiter to get information about the atmosphere, but the probe was obliterated in the atmosphere. The probes job was to travel 124 miles into Jupiter to study, temperature, pressure, chemicals, cloud characteristics, sunlight, and lightning. The Galileo spacecraft had crash into Jupiter’s atmosphere to gain information since the probe failed. One amazing thing that Galileo discovered is that Jupiter’s Gasses are stronger than gasses of

our sun. Another astonishing thing that we have discovered is that Jupiter is like its own solar system that controls its own planets. There is an intense radiation belt on top of its spinning clouds that sends out so much electricity, that our planet gets billions of watts every day. Last is that the Galileo spacecraft found that Jupiter’s magnetic force is so strong that the Asteroid belt is controlled by Jupiter. That means without Jupiter, our planet would be pelted with asteroids every day and also our orbit around the sun would be off, and that would create catastrophic problems. Now scientists have a better understanding on how our solar system works then they did before. The Spacecraft Galileo has helped us learn about our own solar system by the fact that it has discovered water on other places besides Earth. Also that this tiny probe has taught us that Jupiter monitor’s every thing in our solar system and that now we have figured out how perfect our planet is.