2 Danger incoming

Chapter Two DANGER INCOMING. With a cheerful beep, a sign lit up that said, "UNFASTEN SEAT BELTS NOW". Roshni and Ollie glanced at each other and quickly undid their buckles. "Might as well have a look around," Roshni suggested. "Whoa!" Ollie cried. "What's going on? I'm flying!"

Sure enough, he was gently drifting up into the air. His unfastened seat belt rippled below him like a flag in the wind. Roshni giggled. "You're not flying. You're floating!" She pushed down with her hands, and immediately rose upward. Her hair wafted out around her as if she were underwater. It felt pretty strange, but very fun, too. Ollie chuckled as he waved his arms and legs. "This is awesome!" "It's because there's hardly any gravity up here," Roshni explained. "Back on Earth, the gravity is strong and pulls everything down.

That's why we don't float away." "This is much more fun," said Ollie. "I'm going to do a cartwheel." He sent himself spinning across the cabin. Roshni went one better, and launched into a triple forward somersault. "Look out!" Ollie warned as Roshni tumbled past him. CRASH! She bumped into the side of the cabin and knocked a coil of electrical cable off the wall. But thanks to the special padding all around the inside of the Beagle, it didn't hurt at all. They could zoom around as much as they liked! They floated around for a while, getting used to the strange weightless feeling. The Beagle helpfully lit up some grab handles that they could hold on to.

"So where are we?" Ollie wondered. "Space!" "Sure, but where in space? Mars? Venus? The moon?" "Let's find out." Roshni reached for a grab handle and pulled herself toward the window. She gasped. Looming up ahead was a gigantic planet with orange stripes and faint rings. "Jupiter!" she said.

When Roshni had seen the planet through her telescope, it had seemed no bigger than her thumbnail. Now it was so big she couldn't even see all of it. Ollie whistled. "Now that's a big planet. I bet you could fit Earth inside there at least ten times." "Try one thousand three hundred times," Roshni said in awe. "It's the biggest planet in the solar system." She grabbed Ollie's arm. "And look! There's the Great Red Spot!" From this close, Roshni could make out the enormous storm easily. This definitely makes up for not seeing it earlier, she thought. "Wow!" said Ollie. "It's all swirly, like a whirlpool."

There were smaller spots spinning across Jupiter, too. Roshni pointed them out to Ollie. "They're all storms on Jupiter's surface, like we have on Earth," she explained. "The Great Red Spot's a storm as well. It's been going on for hundreds of years." She pointed to a tiny shining object. "Jupiter's got moons like we have, too." Ollie's eyebrows shot up. "Moons? You mean, more than one?" Roshni grinned and showed him more little objects. "That's a moon. And so's that, and that." "Seriously?" Ollie asked. "How many moons does Jupiter have?" "Oh, more than seventy," Roshni said casually. Ollie stared at her. "Seventy?"