Jan. 12, 2007 — Less than a year after leaving Earth, a spacecraft bound for Pluto is
approaching Jupiter for a six-month series of observations.
New Horizons lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in
Florida on Jan. 19 for a nine-year voyage to Pluto. This week,
mission scientists began a mini-campaign to study Jupiter.
The
probe's closest approach will come on Feb. 28, but observations of
Jupiter's icy moons, its turbulent atmosphere and powerful magnetic
field will continue until June.
The first of about 700 images was an infrared shot of Callisto, the
third largest moon in the solar system. NASA's Galileo mission to
Jupiter, which ended in September 2003, showed evidence of an ocean
beneath Callisto's ice-covered crust.
During the encounter, New Horizons also will be training its
instruments on sister moons Io, Europa and Ganymede to flesh out maps
produced by the Galileo satellite.
Galileo had a faulty main antenna,
which limited the amount of data that could be relayed back to Earth.
Scientists hope that New Horizon's high-speed
communications system will help them learn more about the giant
moons. Io, for example, has active volcanoes and Europa likely sports
an underground — and perhaps life-bearing — sea.
