Twenty-five years ago, an object roughly the size of an oven made space history when it plunged into the clouds of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. On Dec. 7, 1995, the 750-pound Galileo probe became the first probe to enter the gas giant. Traveling at a blistering speed of 106,000 miles per hour, the probe’s protective heat shield experienced temperatures as hot as the Sun’s surface generated by friction during entry. As the probe parachuted through Jupiter’s dense atmosphere, its science instruments made measurements of the planet’s chemical and physical makeup. The probe collected data for nearly an hour before its signal was lost. Its data was transmitted to Earth via the Galileo spacecraft, an orbiter that carried the probe to Jupiter and stayed within contact during the encounter. Learn more about the mission.
The Galileo probe was launched to space aboard space shuttle Atlantis in 1989
The probe consisted of a descent module and a protective deceleration module
The probe traveled to Jupiter attached to the Galileo spacecraft
The probe was released from the spacecraft in July 1995
The probe entered Jupiter’s atmosphere five months later on Dec. 7, 1995
Parachutes were deployed to slow the probe’s descent
The probe collected science data for 58 minutes as it fell into the planet’s atmosphere
The Galileo probe was managed by NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.
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