New From Cassini: Jupiter Family Pictures

New From Cassini: Jupiter Family Pictures

December 21, 2000

Contact:


Guy Webster, JPL, (818) 354-6278


Lori Stiles, University of Arizona, (520) 626-4402

With the huge, colorful face of Jupiter as a backdrop to keep sizes in
perspective, three of that planet's four major moons are on display in new
images for release today and tomorrow from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

12/21/00

12/22/00

Europa and Callisto are aligned with each other and the center of Jupiter
in a true-color Cassini picture available online today from NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., at:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/pictures/jupiter

and from the web site of the Cassini Imaging Science team at the
University of Arizona, Tucson, at:

http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/.

A Cassini picture of the moon Ganymede at Jupiter will be available
Friday, Dec. 22.

NASA's Galileo spacecraft, which has been orbiting Jupiter for five years,
recently found evidence of a liquid ocean hidden below Ganymede's surface.
Galileo will fly past Ganymede for another close encounter on Dec. 28.

Cassini will pass Jupiter at a distance of about 9.7 million kilometers (6
million miles) on Dec. 30. The spacecraft will use a boost from Jupiter's
gravity to reach its ultimate destination, Saturn, in July 2004.
Additional information from collaborative studies of Jupiter by Cassini
and NASA's Galileo spacecraft is available online at:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jupiterflyby.

Additional information about Cassini is available online at:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

Cassini is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and
the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the Cassini and Galileo missions for
NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL is a division of the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Media Relations Office

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

California Institute of Technology

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Pasadena, Calif. 91109.

Telephone (818) 354-5011