The further adventures of Jasper the space/time travelling cat (Volume 2. Episode 2)

Volume 2. Episode 2. Jasper goes to Jupiter. As you do...

Well now. Having had a quick jaunt around the outer rings of Saturn and reporting back on various odd phenomena, young Jasper has now ventured to the gas giant, Jupiter.

Jupiter is big. Very, very big. In fact, it's about 1300 times the size of the wee blue orb upon which we sit right now. Composed of clouds of helium, water vapour, ammonia and hydrogen sulphide, Jupiter is one scary, breathtaking place, as was evidenced by the incredible pictures from the Galileo space probe in recent years.

Jupiter also has a mass of moons - 16 for sure, the most interesting of which are Io, Europa, Ganymede (the biggest satellite in the solar system) and Callisto, the original four observed by Galileo (the scientist, not the probe) in 1610. A 17th moon may have been discovered in recent years. Nasa are still arguing about it...

However, it is Europa which is of special interest to us. The reason: it is the best hope, we are told, for finding some other form of life within our solar system. The chances are remote, but Jasper is investigating as we speak. Using some dinky little gadgets that Daev and Barry threw together over at Blather Labs, Jasper has been cruising the surface of Europa for any nascent signs of life. So far, he has found three Starbucks, two McDonalds and a Vodafone store but has not had much else to report.

More as it comes in.