DP wrote in message ...

Apparently NASA seems to be sure enough that either no life
can exist within Jupiter, or that Galileo will be completely
sterilized before entering such "comfortable" atmospheric layers.

Well, yeah. Re-entry at Jovian orbital velocities? Even if it
reached the comfortable atmospheric layers, Galileo would be
in a state (generally referred to as "a frickin' hot fireball")
that would not be conducive to transferring terrestrial bacteria
to a hydrogen-helium Jovian environment.

Mike Miller, Materials Engineer