WHEN Galileo crashes into Jupiter this Sunday, it will be sacrificing itself for the sake of alien life, according to NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. But there should be some rewards for humanity, too. In its final hour, the spacecraft may discover whether a Jovian moon is disintegrating, and explore Jupiter’s outermost atmosphere for the first time.
Galileo has orbited Jupiter for nearly eight years, far longer than the two-year mission that was originally planned, making discovery after discovery about the giant planet and its moons. One suggestion was to keep Galileo in orbit as…
