An artist's drawing of the Galileo spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter
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Image courtesy of NASA
Galileo - The Sequel
News story originally written on January 2, 1998
Galileo finished the first part of its mission on December 7, 1997. It spent the last two years studying
Jupiter and its moons.
Galileo just started part II of its mission. During this part of the mission Galileo will fly by three of Jupiter's moons: Europa, Callisto and Io.
A flyby is exactly what it sounds like. The spacecraft passes really close to the planet or moon so that it is close enough to take good pictures. After all, if you flew all the way to Jupiter, you'd want to get close enough to take good pictures, wouldn't you?
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