A detailed recreation of the Galileo space probe's descent into Jupiter's inferno

On October 18, 1989, NASA launched an ambitious space exploration mission with the space shuttle Atlantis.

The Trojans of Jupiter's orbit and the Lucy probe sent by NASA to investigate them
The travel of the Galileo spacecraft inside Jupiter and what it found before disappearing

I already told you here in 2023 about this fascinating mission, in which for the first time a spacecraft visited an asteroid (Gaspra, on October 9, 1991) and in which the first observation of the impact of a comet against a planet also took place, Shoemaker-Levy 9 against Jupiter between July 16 and 22, 1994.

On July 13, 1995, the spacecraft separated into two parts. The orbiter remained in space until September 21, 2003, when NASA decided to crash it into Jupiter. The space probe descended into Jupiter's interior on December 7, 1995, a date that should be very important for humanity, as it marked the first time a spacecraft had visited a giant planet.

The space probe descended at a speed of 250,000 km/h, and its phenolic carbon heat shield reached a temperature of 15,500 °C, losing more than half its mass during that brutal descent. Finally, the probe deployed a parachute that considerably reduced its speed. The Galileo probe transmitted data for 61.4 minutes, descending about 180 kilometers, much more than expected, until it finally fell silent, only to be destroyed by the brutal pressure and high temperature of the planet. It was the closest thing to a descent into hell inside the largest planet in the Solar System.

I'm bringing these events up again because a few days ago, the YouTube channel Hoog published a very detailed and high-quality video recreating the Galileo space probe's descent into Jupiter. The magnificent images you can see in this article are taken from this excellent video:

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Images: Hoog.