NASA's Galileo spacecraft was purposely destroyed [Sunday], ending its scientific career in a blaze of glory, disintegrating at high altitude within Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere.

Its propellant gauge reading near empty, the nuclear-powered spacecraft was put to rest in a 21st century form of techno-euthansia. The spacecraft fell silent at 12:40:51 p.m. Pacific Time.

It was a good run, as spacecraft go. Dispatched from a space shuttle in 1989, Galileo began its orbiting of Jupiter and its entourage of moons in late 1995. Over the years, the spacecraft relayed an astounding set of observations.

[...]

The Galileo has been labeled as "one of mankind's greatest voyages" by Robert Park, a scientist at the University of Maryland.

Writing in his web site column sponsored by The American Physical Society, Park underscored Galileo's string of robotic revelations.

"It's the sort of thing you can do with robots -- you don't have to bring them home," Park said.

"Galileo discovered liquid water under the frozen oceans of Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Could this subsurface water, protected from radiation, harbor alien life? The search for life to which we are not related is the most exciting scientific quest of our time. To explore where no human can ever set foot is our greatest adventure," Park said.