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On the cover: Against a canvas of Jupiter's blue-purple atmospheric haze, a ruddy-colored, chaotic cyclone meets its match in the three White Ovals -- whirling, drifting storm systems that produce high, thick clouds as big as 5,600 miles (9,000 km) across.
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November/December 2000
We normally associate "photo finish" with the suspense of a horserace whose decision is too close to call conclusively. In the case of our Galileo Gallery feature, we're much more literal. It's our way of acknowledging the end of Galileo's 11-year scientific mission to study Jupiter and its four major moons and the wealth of images that the amazing spacecraft has returned. And although mission engineers experienced moments of suspense as Galileo plied the treacherous magnetic field surrounding the Jovian planet and the volcanic activity of Io, for our readers the only thing that's clearly undecided is which of Galileo's images is more striking.
Speaking of striking, how about the idea of a meteor or comet slamming into ancient Earth just outside present-day Chesapeake Bay? We may never know precisely what happened there millions of years ago, but this close encounter left behind all kinds of clues that geologists today are using to piece together the puzzle.
Goodbye, Galileo?
What Chipped the Chesapeake?
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