From: gdpusch@NO.xnet.SPAM.com   
      
   DP  writes:   
      
   > Ron Baalke wrote:   
   > ...   
   > > RELEASE: 03-297   
   > > GALILEO TO TASTE JUPITER BEFORE TAKING FINAL PLUNGE   
   > >      In the end, the Galileo spacecraft will get a taste of Jupiter   
   > > before taking a final plunge into the planet's crushing atmosphere,   
   > > ending the mission on Sunday, Sept. 21.   
   > ...   
   > > The spacecraft has been purposely put on a collision course with Jupiter   
   > > to eliminate any chance of an unwanted impact between the spacecraft and   
   > > Jupiter's moon Europa, which Galileo discovered is likely to have a   
   > > subsurface ocean.   
   >   
   > At some heights in the Jupiter atmosphere the physical   
   > conditions might be suitable to sustain life.   
   > Since temperature increases inward, at some level it must   
   > traverse the 0-100 C interval in layers where water and organic   
   > molecules must be present, and well shielded from cosmic rays.   
   >   
   > Apparently NASA seems to be sure enough that either no life   
   > can exist within Jupiter, or that Galileo will be completely   
   > sterilized before entering such "comfortable" atmospheric layers.   
      
   1.)  Galileo's impact velocity will be so high it will wiff to plasma.   
      It is highly unlikely anything living would survive the process ---   
      or even the very molecules it was formerly made of.   
      
   2.)  Jupiter's environment is most likely too alien for anything that   
      evolved on Earth to survive there --- even in the "water zone."   
      
   3.)  Jupiter has almost certainly already been hit by terrestrial material   
      ejected by asteroid impacts, just as Earth has been hit by Mars rocks;   
      hence, if terrestrial microorganisms _can_ survive on Jupiter, they are   
      probably already there.   
      
   Note that all of the above are likewise true of an impact on Europa,   
   so this whole self-immolation maneuver is almost certainly pointless ---   
   it is basically just a misguided PR exercise to demonstrate JPL's   
   "environmental responsibility" to people who are still going to hate   
   and oppose them as a knee-jerk reflex response, no matter _what_ JPL does.   
      
      
   -- Gordon D. Pusch   
      
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