Galileo's fourth flyby of Ganymede (also known as the Ganymede 8 flyby because it took place during Galileo's eighth orbit around Jupiter), the largest of Jupiter's Galilean satellites, occurred on 07 May 1997 at 15:57 UTC. At that time, Galileo came about 1485 km from the surface of Ganymede (or about 1.6 Ganymede radii from its center). As measured to the center of Ganymede, this is 0.4 times farther away than Galileo came to Ganymede during its closest approach on its second orbit back in September 1996. During this time, observations were also made of the Jovian magnetosphere as well as of the other satellites of Jupiter. Especially noteworthy during this particular orbit will be images of Jupiter's satellites Elara (approximately 40 km in size) and Metis (about 20 km).
The following timeline is a list of different events which will occur beginning with the official start of the Ganymede 8 encounter and proceding until the last data from the encounter are played back. The times are given in Universal Time (UTC) of the event at the spacecraft.
Date/Time Instrument Event
________ __________ _____
04 May 16:00 Start of Ganymede 8 encounter
16:30 Orbital Trim Maneuver (OTM) 26
05 May 00:00 UVS Elara observing
10:10 Science Turn (Io plume monitoring)
06 May 09:33 SSI First Io monitoring observation
11:13 NIMS/UVS Callisto south pole observation
12:08 SSI Callisto south pole imaging
12:11 Callisto closest approach (35,900 km)
12:56 PPR Callisto polarimetry/thermal observation
22:30 F&P Plasma sheet/aurora recording
23:37 NIMS/UVS Jupiter auroral asymmetry map
07 May 01:10 UVS Jupiter auroral variability map
07:31 Io closest approach (956,000 km)
11:17 UVS First south polar haze zone observation
13:18 NIMS Ganymede Osiris observing
13:38 PPR Ganymede dayside thermal observation
14:35 SSI Ganymede Tiamat Sulcus
15:38 F&P Ganymede closest approach recording
15:56 Start Earth occultation by Ganymede
15:57 Start Sun occultation by Ganymede
Ganymede closest approach (4,120 km)
16:03 End Earth occultation by Ganymede
16:05 End Sun occultation by Ganymede
19:04 Turn to return to Earth point
19:58 NIMS Last Io monitoring observation
08 May 09:49 Europa closest approach (1,290,000 km)
11:42 Jupiter closest approach (663,000 km)
16:34 SSI Metis imaging
10 May 23:18 NIMS Last south polar haze zone observation
11 May 02:00 Orbital Trim Maneuver (OTM) 27
16:00 Start of data playback (Ganymede 8)
13 May 14:00 F&P End Ganymede 8 real-time survey
25 May 05:04 RS Start Earth occultation observing
09:36 Start Earth occultation by Jupiter
26 May 03:52 End Earth occultation by Jupiter
08:25 RS End Earth occultation observing
02 Jun 16:00 F&P Start second magnetosphere mini-tour
03 Jun 03:00 Orbital Trim Maneuver (OTM) 28
18 Jun 05:30 First Callisto 9 approach OPNAV
21 Jun 01:45 Last Callisto 9 approach OPNAV
22 Jun 16:00 End of data playback (Ganymede 8)
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