Missions to Jupiter
| Mission |
Country |
Launch Date |
Arrival Date |
Type |
Encounter Characteristics |
|
| Pioneer 11 |
USA |
April 6, 1973 |
September 1, 1979 |
Flyby |
Returned detailed pictures of Jupiter and Jupiter's Great Red Spot.
|
| Voyager 1 |
USA |
September 5, 1977 |
November 13, 1980 |
Flyby |
Returned photographs and information on Jupiter's many moons. |
| Voyager 2 |
USA |
August 20, 1977 |
August 26, 1981 |
Flyby |
Showed that Jupiter's Great Red Spot is really a complex storm, and that Io, one of Jupiter's moons, has active volcanism. |
| Galileo |
USA & Europe |
October18, 1989 |
February 10, 1990 |
Orbiter/Probe |
The Galileo Probe successfully descended into Jupiter's atmosphere
on December 7,1995.
Galileo Orbiter successfully entered orbit well above the cloud tops of
Jupiter on December 7, 1995 and is currently observing the Jupiter system. |
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Unexpected discoveries made by the two Voyager spacecrafts during their visits to the four largest planets in our solar system have changed the field of space science. Voyager 2 was launched on Aug. 2
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Galileo was a spacecraft that orbited Jupiter for eight years. It made many discoveries about Jupiter and its moons. Galileo was launched in 1989, and reached Jupiter in 1995. The spacecraft had two parts.
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Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system! It's also very bright in the sky. We don't know who discovered it, but we do know the ancient Greeks named the planet after the god, Zeus. The United
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The Galileo spacecraft has been in space more than 10 years! It has been orbiting Jupiter for more than five years. And Galileo is still going strong! The Galileo mission was suppose to end years ago.
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Anthony Wesley is an astronomer in Australia. One night in July 2009, Wesley noticed a dark spot on Jupiter that hadn't been there before. He had discovered the remains of a huge impact on Jupiter! A comet
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Jupiter's magnetosphere is very special. It is the biggest thing in the entire solar system. Not only is it big enough to hold all of Jupiter's moons, but the sun itself could fit inside. It goes all
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You may think Saturn is the only planet with rings. It is not! Jupiter has rings, too. They aren't as easy to see as Saturn's, but they are there! Saturns rings are made of ice and are very bright. Jupiter's
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