Galileo Galilei discovered four of Jupiter’s moons in 1610. Nearly 400 years later, NASA named the probe they sent to study Jupiter’s moons after the Italian astronomer.

After a 6 year journey to Jupiter, Galileo went into Jovian orbit and sent back countless data about Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa the Galilean moons as well as Jupiter itself over the next 8 years. The probe confirmed the presence of a salty liquid ocean under the icy surface of Europa. A potential therefore for hosting life. But the Galileo probe had not been sterilised before leaving Earth, so rather than risk Galileo crashing into Europa, the last of it’s fuel was used to accelerate into the Jovian atmosphere and destroy the probe.

Discuss how this must have felt to scientists working on the project and whether it was the right thing to do. Perhaps ask whether it’s important to know whether there is any life in Europa’s ocean or not.

-Bill