Galileo Millenium Mission Status
August 16, 2001

NASA's Galileo spacecraft is transmitting to Earth scientific information
from its dash past Jupiter's moon Io last week, including top-priority
measurements of magnetic forces above Io's north pole.

A first look at the data already suggests that Io's internally generated
magnetic field is either absent or quite weak, said the principal
investigator for Galileo's magnetometer instrument, Dr. Margaret Kivelson
of the University of California, Los Angeles. Stronger conclusions will
have to await more analysis. Determining whether Io has an intrinsic
magnetic field is the primary science goal for the flyby on Aug. 6,
Universal Time, and for Galileo's next encounter, an Oct. 16 pass near
Io's south pole.

For full text of release, see
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2001/release_2001_172.html

Alex R. Blackwell
University of Hawaii