Galileo (1990, 1992)
The Galileo spacecraft flew by the Earth and Moon on Dec. 8, 1990 and Dec. 8, 1992.
The image at the top of the page is a false color image of the Moon created by
combining 53 images taken from three different filters on Galileo during
the 1992 flyby. Pink represents highlands, blue to orange denote volcanic flows.
The primary mission of the Galileo orbiter and probe is to explore Jupiter and
its satellites. (More information on the spacecraft and mission to Jupiter is
given below.) Due to the great distance to Jupiter of over 600 million kilometers,
and the on board fuel limitations, a series of planetary flybys has taken place
in order to give Galileo a gravity assist to Jupiter:
Launch 18 Oct 1989
Venus 10 Feb 1990
Earth/Moon 1 08 Dec 1990
Gaspra 29 Oct 1991
Earth/Moon 2 08 Dec 1992
Ida 28 Aug 1993
Jupiter arrival 07 Dec 1995
These flybys gave Galileo an opportunity to image the Moon at various wavelengths
with the Solid State Imaging (SSI) camera.
The camera uses a high-resolution, 800 x 800 charge-coupled
device (CCD) array with a field of view of 0.46 degrees.
Multi-spectral coverage is provided by an
eight-position filter wheel on the camera, consisting of
three broad-band filters: violet (404 nm), green (559 nm), and red (671 nm);
four near-infrared filters: 727 nm, 756 nm, 889 nm, and 986 nm;
and one clear filter (611 nm) with a very broad (440 nm) passband.
This Galileo image shows the north pole of the Moon.
Image of the Earth and Moon taken by Galileo
Galileo Data and Information at NSSDCA
Information on the Galileo spacecraft and mission to Jupiter
Return to Lunar home page
Author/Curator:
Dr. David R. Williams, dave.williams@nasa.gov
NSSDCA, Mail Code 690.1
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD 20771
+1-301-286-1258
NASA Official: Dave Williams, david.r.williams@nasa.gov
Last Updated: 13 June 2008, DRW