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From Correspondent Greg Lefevre
January 22, 1996
Web posted at: 6:55 p.m. EST
MOUNTAIN VIEW, California (CNN) -- Data returned by NASA's Galileo probe revealed unexpected findings about Jupiter's atmosphere that may help us understand other solar systems as well as our own, NASA officials said in a press conference Monday afternoon. Dr. Richard Young explains. (170K AIFF sound or 170K WAV sound)
Instruments aboard the Galileo probe recorded higher winds, drier-than-anticipated conditions, a different cloud structure and nearly half the amount of helium researchers previously believed to be on the planet.
Scientists had conventionally thought that Jupiter evolved from the gas and dust cloud of the primitive solar nebula, but the probe's findings may force them to re-evaluate views of its formation, NASA's Dr. Young said. (162K AIFF sound or 162K WAV sound)
The probe released by the unmanned Galileo entered Jupiter's atmosphere December 7, and relayed a 57-minute weather report back to the mother ship before melting and vaporizing. Its scientific instruments recorded temperature, pressure, density, wind speed, chemical composition and radiation, and looked for lightning storms in the clouds. The data was stored on Galileo and fed back on a delayed basis.
In its preliminary assessment of the data, NASA scientists say the probe found that lightning occurs on Jupiter only about a tenth as often on Earth. Scientists said that is because of an absence of water clouds. They say that the virtual absence of lightning reduces the chances of finding complex organic molecule's in Jupiter's atmosphere.
Jupiter is an ancient planet and scientists believe it looks the way it did when the universe was formed. They had thought Jupiter was the largest planet up until last week, when evidence was found of two larger planets orbiting stars similar to the sun. Changes in the theory of Jupiter's origin will affect scientists' theories about those planets, as well.
Galileo, launched in 1989 aboard space shuttle Atlantis, will orbit Jupiter and eight of its 16 moons for two years. It will pass by Jupiter's moon Ganymede on June 27.
Scientists plan to continue to study the data for the next several years.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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