How Aliens Caused NASA to Destroy Their Advanced Galileo Probe

Yes. Aliens. No really. Officially, from NASA.

(By NASA — http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?IM_ID=2071 (image link)http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA18176 (image link), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=408298)

In 1989, the Galileo space probe was launched into space within the space shuttle Atlantis. The probe was one of the most intricate machines ever put into space. It was designed to reach Jupiter, orbit the gas giant, and even deploy a special probe into the atmosphere to gather scientific data on the planet’s makeup. The probe used a series of gravitational assists to fly deep into the solar system, and after six years of flying through the void, Galileo reached Jupiter.

NASA had big plans for the probe, which was going to make multiple orbits of Jupiter and a number of close flybys with Jupiter’s main moons, Ganymede, Io, Europa, and Callisto. Scientists, engineers, and amateur astronomers were all waiting with bated breath for the results, which were guaranteed to increase our knowledge of our solar system’s largest planet.

So why did NASA intentionally decide to destroy their expensive and high-tech probe? And what did aliens have to do with it? After years of planning, years of flying through the solar system, and an important mission, why would NASA decide to wreck its most impressive project at the time?

(By Phoenix7777 — Own workData source: HORIZONS System, JPL, NASA, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70222106)

For all of the years it took to get Galileo from a lab on Earth to Jupiter’s orbit, the mission was only scheduled to last two years. The first orbit of Jupiter lasted seven months, but subsequent orbits were shorter and shorter. This is because the environment around Jupiter is highly caustic. There are high amounts of radiation and crushing gravity. The probe was not designed to orbit Jupiter indefinitely. In fact, after just a few years in space, Galileo was already running out of the critical fuel it needed to navigate.

Galileo would go on to make eleven orbits of Jupiter, four flybys with Ganymede, three with the icy moon of Europa, three with Callisto, and one with Io. (Io was used as yet another gravitational slingshot to position the probe. Io’s strong magnetic field and radiation spooked NASA engineers, and it was decided that the moon should be avoided for…