"Jupiter is like it's own solar system," Captain Kemp told me once. "Heck, if Jupiter had been a little bigger, it might have started fusing hydrogen and shining like a star."
He was right. We explored the Jupiter system for months, visiting numerous small moons and the clusters of trojan asteroids that drift along Jupiter's orbit.
He munched a cookie cube and said, "All this stuff could be barreling down on Mars and Earth." He waved at the busy radar screen tracking asteroids from baseball to house size. "But Jupiter is like our big brother, grabbing all these rocks before they nail us."
A week later, we saw Jupiter in action, and it was almost our last action too.
Kemp was outside the ship, placing mapping beacons on some asteroids. He was also keen to photograph a small comet that was passing close to Jupiter. The giant planet had been known to swallow a comet whole if it got too close.
The comet did come too close. But, unlike an asteroid made of rock and metal, the comet was a loose collection of pebbles and ice and frozen gas.
Jupiter's gravity tore it to pieces. Now, instead of a single object to track, our radar was clogged with hundreds of small targets. And Kemp was hidden in the cloud of spinning fragments!
But he kept his cool and slowly made his way back with little puffs of his suit jets. I couldn't stand the suspense, so I moved the ship closer to him, just outside the new debris cloud.
He came onboard and smiled, patting his camera. "One of these photos ought to make the cover of Astro Geographic! The title should be 'Inside an Exploding Comet'."
Inspired by the movie "Moon Zero Two", Hammer Films, 1969.
#spaceart #scifiart #scifi #outerspace #deepspace #science #astronomy #future #planet #moon #exoplanet #cosmos #cosmic #moonzerotwo #spacesuit #jupiter #comet #asteroid #meteor
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