NASA's Galileo spacecraft has successfully zipped past Jupiter's moon Io, the most volcanic body in our solar system. Instruments onboard the spacecraft peered down at Io from an altitude of only 611 kilometers (380 miles) at 10:06 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on Sunday. This was the closest look at Io by any spacecraft, and Galileo's cameras were poised to capture the brief encounter.

If all goes as planned, the data will be transmitted to Earth over the next several weeks and then will undergo processing by mission scientists. New pictures would then be released at a press briefing tentatively scheduled next month.

 "We're thrilled that the spacecraft handled this flyby so well, particularly because it had to endure a strong dose of radiation from Jupiter," said Jim Erickson, Galileo project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. "It appears at this point that everything went well."

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