The second Ganymede flyby Galileo made was the closest Galileo will come to the satellite. During this time, observations were also be made of the Jovian magnetosphere as well as of the other satellites of Jupiter.
The problems with the Photopolarimeter-Radiometer (PPR) filter wheel continued. Attempts which occurred after the Ganymede 2 encounter to free the stuck filter wheel were unsuccessful. Engineers continue to look at the problem.
This flyby of Ganymede made by Galileo was the second of several close encounters of the Galilean satellites and the closest flyby Galileo will make to Ganymede. The distance Galileo came to Ganymede during this flyby was about 255 km altitude above the satellite (or about 1.1 Ganymede radii from Ganymede's center), some 56 times closer than Voyager 2 and more than 3 times closer than Galileo came during the first Ganymede flyby.
The following timeline is a list of different events which occurred beginning with the official start of the Ganymede encounter and proceding until the last data from the encounter were played back. The times are given in Universal Time (UTC) of the event at the spacecraft.
Date/Time Instrument Event
________ __________ _____
01 Sept 16:00 Start of Ganymede 2 encounter
02 Sept 00:20 PWS Jovian radio emission observation
09:45 Last Ganymede 2 OPNAV
23:14 SSI First Io monitoring observation
03 Sept 01:29 UVS Last Ganymede 2 Io torus observation
17:15 SSI Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact zone observation
17:20 NIMS Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact zone observation
23:47 UVS Jupiter auroral map
04 Sept 19:25 Orbital Trim Maneuver (OTM) 10
06 Sept 09:01 RS Ganymede gravity field measurement
17:27 NIMS/UVS Ganymede north pole map
18:31 F&P Ganymede wake and wing recording
18:35 SSI Ganymede Anshar Sulcus
18:45 SSI Ganymede palimpsest
19:00 Ganymede closest approach (2,880 km)
20:25 Science turn (Jupiter stratospheric map)
21:35 UVS Jupiter stratospheric circulation map
23:22 Turn to return to Earth point
07 Sept 04:56 PPR Io full disk map
05:25 Io closest approach (441,000 km)
08:18 SSI Amalthea full disk imaging
13:37 Jupiter closest approach (762,000 km)
14:43 SSI Europa low phase photometry
17:06 Europa closest approach (673,000 km)
17:10 NIMS Europs main circular feature
21:59 PPR Europa polarimetry
08 Sept 05:19 NIMS Last Io monitoring observation
13:23 SSI Callisto low phase photometry
16:00 Start of data playback (Ganymede 2)
23:31 PPR Callisto polarimetry
09 Sept 10:24 Callisto closest approach (424,000 km)
10:27 NIMS Callisto global coverage
22:05 Orbital Trim Maneuver (OTM) 11
12 Sept 02:38 F&P Plasma sheet crossing recording
23 Sept 17:38 Turn for attitude maintenance
08 Oct 15:05 Orbital Trim Maneuver (OTM) 12
09 Oct 14:47 First Callisto OPNAV (for Callisto 3)
27 Oct 18:33 EUV/UVS First Io torus observation (Callisto 3)
31 Oct 00:08 Last Callisto OPNAV (for Callisto 3)
01 Nov 14:05 Orbital Trim Maneuver (OTM) 13
02 Nov 16:00 End of data playback (Ganymede 2)
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