A five-month collaboration between NASA's Galileo Jupiter orbiter and the Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft is to start in October.
When Galileo orbits Jupiter at a distance of 464,000km (288,000 miles), Cassini will be about 9.6 million kilometres above the giant planet en route to Saturn. The missions will allow NASA to observe Jupiter and its moon, Io, from two different viewpoints simultaneously during a solar eclipse of the planet on 29 December.
NASA will also study the solar winds and high-speed dust streams coming from the volcanic, sulphurous moon. The only light to be seen during the eclipse will be from Io's volcanic gases.
Meanwhile, the US National Research Council has recommended that NASA crash the Galileo orbiter into Jupiter's atmosphere at the end of its mission to protect the moons, Io and Europa, from potential contamination from Earth microbes. Europa is of concern because it may be covered with a liquid water ocean under an ice pack, which could encourage the growth of foreign organisms.
Source: Flight International
