NASA's Galileospace probe has made a controlled, fiery crash into Jupiter to end a 14-year mission that yielded dramatic discoveries about the largest planet and its moons.
The space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, received the final signal from the spacecraft at 8.43 p.m. Irish time last night.
Galileowas low on propellant and six years past its original end date. Launched from space shuttle Atlantisin 1989, Galileotravelled about 2.8 billion miles (4.6 billion kilometres) before it disintegrated in Jupiter's dense atmosphere last night.
Galileoorbited Jupiter 34 times and obtained the first direct measurements of its atmosphere by sending a probe parachuting down toward the planet in 1995.
It detected evidence of underground salt water oceans beneath the icy crusts of Jupiter's moon, Europa. Data also showed that the moons Ganymede and Callisto may have a liquid saltwater layer.
More than 1,000 people who worked on the Galileoprogramme gathered at the laboratory to celebrate the end of the mission.
Team member Ms Rosaly Lopes described the farewell celebration as bittersweet. "It was very emotional. We had people coming here today who worked on Galileomany years ago. Some had retired. Some had left for other jobs and it was like a big family reunion," she said.
Astronomers hope to retrieve Galileo'sdata, but radiation from Jupiter could be a problem. The craft has already weathered more than four times the dose of harmful Jovian radiation it was designed to withstand, and Galileoentered a particularly high-radiation area as it approached the planet.