By Jonathan Oatis

NEW YORK, Dec 8 (Reuter) - The Galileo mission to Jupiter is in cyberspace as well as outer space.

The Galileo mission has a spot on the World Wide Web, the easy-to-use graphical section of the Internet, that includes pictures from the mission, the latest news on the spacecraft and the chance to ask questions of the scientists and engineers directing the mission.

``The new Jupiter images will be stored here,'' promises the opening page at the site titled ``Project Galileo: Bringing Jupiter to Earth,'' one of many maintained by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Those pictures aren't expected until next spring or summer, but the Web site boasts pictures already snapped by Galileo of asteroids, Earth, Venus and the moon.

On Thursday, Galileo sent a probe into the giant planet's atmosphere and began a two-year orbit of Jupiter that will include close encounters with three of its moons.

The Web site sports a headline giving a countdown for the next big event in the mission: a close encounter with the Jovian satellite Ganymede. NASA's Web site said early on Friday that the encounter was expected in 209 days, five hours, 21 minutes and 54 seconds.

The site also has a daily status report from which one can learn, for example, that Galileo was 580,577,800 miles (934,349,500 km) from Earth and travelling at 26,900 miles per hour (43,300 km per hour) relative to the sun.

Anyone with the right computer, software and modem can access the site, which has had nearly 193,000 visits since January 18.

(The site's home page, or gateway, is at http:/www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/index.htm. If it takes too long to access the site, which appeared to be very popular Thursday night, there is a ``mirror,'' or identical, site at http:/newproducts.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo.)