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About "Galileo at Io"

NASA's Galileo spacecraft was launched in 1989, and entered orbit around Jupiter in 1995 to study the Jovian system. While in orbit it released a probe that found that Jupiter's atmosphere is mostly hydrogen and helium. It also made detailed studies of some of Jupiter's moons. Just over 1 metre wide, the spacecraft sent back a huge amount of scientific data about the Jovian system. When it ran out of fuel, it could have crashed into and contaminated a Jovian moon. To avoid this, it was crashed into Jupiter's upper atmosphere on 21 September 2003.