**Posted by:** Gillie Bahasa, Europan Researcher <__Info__ __Msg__ __Rep__>
You want me to tell you what’s happening in the Jovian system? I should probably start at the start.
Everything about Jupiter is big. That’s the ﬁrst thing you notice as you approach. If you farcast in, or if you’re unlucky enough to be born in the clutches of the Jovian Junta, you don’t really get the opportunity to take in Jupiter’s staggering scale. To appreciate the vastness and complexity of the Jovian system, you need to come in the old-fashioned way. Unfortunately, the Junta makes that very difficult.
=Planetological Overview= 
Jupiter is the gas giant by which we measure all others, both in terms of size and chemical composition. A stormy ball of hydrogen, helium, and trace heavier elements, Jupiter is about 11 Earths in diameter, and hosts no less than ﬁve dozen satellites of varying sizes and compositions. It orbits Sol at a distance of between 5 and 5.5 AU and does so in 4,331.5 Earth days; a little over 11 Earth years. A Jovian day is a touch under 10 Earth hours, putting a Jovian year at about 10,475 Jovian days. That’s a lot of sunrises.
==Rings and Satellites== 
Encircling the massive planet is a sequence of faint rings comprised mostly of planetary dust, home mostly to a small number of [[Jovian Republic]] [[O'Neill Cylinders#Reagan%20Cylinders|Reagan cylinders]] and automated toll stations. Jupiter’s rings also envelop the nearest of its moons: Metis (Bush), Adrastea (Fairway), [[Amalthea]] (Solano), and Thebe (McAllen), all of which are claimed and renamed by the Jovian Republic. Beyond these satellites lie the largest of Jupiter’s moons. The so-called Galilean moons, the ﬁrst of Jupiter’s satellites to be discovered by humans, were also the ﬁrst to be settled. [[Io|Io’s]] inhospitable surface is dotted with a few high-security Jovian Republic military installations. Beneath [[Europa|Europa’s]] icy crust, submarine technoprogressivism reigns. [[Ganymede|Ganymede’s]] numerous city-states are the loyal crown jewels of the Jovian Republic. [[Callisto|Callisto’s]] subterranean labyrinths are primarily Jovian protectorates, but a few hold a large enough transhuman presence to give any Jovian ofﬁcial an apoplectic ﬁt. Further out lie the remainder of the gas giant’s satellites—errant planetary detritus and captured transients. While a number of these are populated, they serve mostly as outposts for the Jovian Republic, with the exception of a few independent tin can stations.
==The Magnetosphere== 
Jupiter’s magnetosphere is the most powerful of all the orbiting bodies of the solar system and directly and indirectly inﬂuences a number of phenomena in the Jovian system. Volcanic ejecta and outgassing from the nearest Galilean moon, Io, are swept up by Jupiter’s magnetosphere. Some of this settles in an elongated non-ionized cloud around the satellite, depositing on the trailing edges of Ganymede and Europa and the leading edge of Callisto. The rest enters orbit around Jupiter as part of a high-radiation plasma torus centered on Io’s orbit. Where the magnetosphere interacts with Io’s thin atmosphere and the non-ionized cloud surrounding it, it generates a powerful electric current in the form of a ﬂux tube that produces auroras in both Jupiter’s polar regions and Io’s thin atmosphere.
The magnetosphere poses a powerful radiological threat to spacefaring vessels and habitats. While most of Jupiter’s satellites fall outside of the danger zone, the Galilean moons and rings all fall within this area. While this protects them from the solar wind, the complex magnetosphere exposes all but Callisto to debilitating levels of radiation. Unshielded or unprotected transhumans exposed to the raw energies of Jupiter’s magnetosphere can expect lethal doses of radiation in days, if not hours or minutes in some places; tin can habitats and cheap spacefaring vessels do not fare much better without makeshift shielding. Those that have spent any amount of time within the Jovian system know the value of sturdy radiation protection.
=Jovian Moons and Habitats= 
The Republic claims direct control over dozens of habitats, the majority of which can be found in or around Ganymede, Io, and the moonlets and rings close to Jupiter itself. On Europa, Callisto and elsewhere in the system, independent habitats still thrive.
* [[Amalthea]] (Solano)
* [[Ganymede]]
* [[Io]]
* [[Callisto]]
* [[Europa]]
* [[The Court of Zeus]]

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