My opinion is that any close observation of Jupiter or IO won't make any difference before impact. It takes weeks to get the images from Galileo because the high gain antenna is still not operational. I think that if you crashed it on IO it may leave a scar there a lot longer than on Jupiter. It would also be interesting to see if there is any kind of flash that could be detected from the impact on IO. Mt. Rushmore will be gone long before we have to worry about our sun turning to a red giant. Ken -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-admin@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-admin@mailman.xmission.com]On Behalf Of Chuck Hards Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2002 10:40 AM To: Utah-Astro Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Galileo, time I thought for sure that more people would have an opinion on where to scuttle the Galileo probe! Galileo is yesterday's news anymore, I suppose. On another matter, watching PBS recently, I noted that the designer of Mt. Rushmore allowed 3" extra material on the sculptures, to allow for 300,000 years of erosion. In other words, the sculpture will not acutually be finished for that lenght of time (assuming the erosion will be uniform, which I doubt). Even so, that is but the blink of an eye in terms of geologic (or cosmic) time....The show reinforced in my mind the notion that one day, the only remaining relics of mankind will be deep-space probes such as the Pioneers and Voyagers....everything here on earth is doomed to the slow but sure process of subduction, and eventual absorbtion & incineration by the elderly, red-giant stage sun. What we discard in the cold depths of interstellar space will be our only lasting legacy, enduring long after we have died out as a species. What's that, you say? We are not going to die out? OK, hold onto that thought if it makes you feel better. It's wrong, but hold onto it... Chuck __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ _______________________________________________ Utah-astronomy mailing list Utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy