The probe was traveling fast enough that it could have gone from Los Angeles to New York in about 90 seconds. The signal from the Galileo Probe craft locked onto the Galileo orbiter. The signal proved that the vehicle completed the critical first step in data recovery from the Galileo Mission to Jupiter and that the probe survived the initial entry into Jupiter's atmosphere.
Scientists hope to learn much about the composition of Jupiter's atmosphere from the probe.
Determine the chemical composition of Jupiter. Determine how many cloud layers exist, their location, and characterize the cloud particles as to size and number density. Measure the amount of helium relative to hydrogen on Jupiter to high accuracy. Measure the winds in Jupiter's atmosphere and determine how deep in the atmosphere the winds exist. Measure how sunlight and energy coming from the deep interior are distributed in Jupiter's atmosphere.