Within the entire Solar System, the Sun alone accounts for 99.86% of the system’s total mass.
Of the remaining 0.14% of mass, Jupiter alone accounts for about 71%.
The remaining 29% of mass constitutes the other seven major planets, numerous dwarf planets, a virtually infinite number of asteroids, comets, interstellar dust, and all other celestial bodies.
Jupiter possesses a vast moon system.
There are four moons that have achieved hydrostatic equilibrium, causing them to assume a spherical shape.
The largest moon, Ganymede, is even larger in volume than Mercury, which is a major planet.
Of course, its mass is not comparable, being only half that of Mercury.
In addition to the four large moons, it also has over seventy smaller moons and a magnificent Jupiter ring.
The Jupiter ring is similar to the Solar System’s asteroid belt, composed of countless large and small rock fragments.
The Jupiter ring is highly fragmented; the largest internal bodies are only about a hundred meters in diameter, and its overall thickness is only a dozen to several tens of kilometers.
However, this implies an advantage: Tom can very conveniently extract minerals from the Jupiter ring.
If the elemental composition of a small celestial body meets his needs, he can directly tow it away for crushing and smelting, completely eliminating the need to excavate downwards, sometimes even thousands of meters deep, as is required for mining on planets.
Besides the Jupiter ring, the other four large moons and over seventy small moons also store rich mineral deposits, and most importantly, three of these four large moons have extremely abundant water reserves.
Ganymede alone stores more water than the entire Earth.
And coincidentally, Tom’s large-scale development precisely requires a large amount of water.
When on Loshen Star and God-Enemy Star, Tom was often troubled by insufficient water resources.
Moreover, Jupiter is located precisely at the edge of the dividing line between the Solar System’s rocky planets and gas giants.
Here, inward is the Solar System’s asteroid belt, containing more celestial bodies like dwarf planets and asteroids.
Further inward are Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, while outward are Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
No matter what resources are needed, they can be acquired relatively conveniently.
No matter where one needs to go, the distance is not too far.
This can probably be considered a "central" area of the Solar System.
After comprehensively comparing the data of various planets, Tom finally decided to establish his main development base in the Jupiter system, and more specifically, on Ganymede.
Upon entering the inner Solar System, Tom’s fleet still did not cease its journey.
It was not until they had passed the orbits of Uranus and Saturn, and were only a few hundred million kilometers from Jupiter, that the massive fleet slowly adjusted its direction, activated its engines, and began to thrust toward Jupiter, gradually reducing its speed.
However, one aerospace carrier did not decelerate.
Not only that, it adjusted its orbit, detached from the main fleet, and began to travel deeper into the Solar System.
After more than three months of deceleration, Tom’s main fleet arrived at Ganymede, and its speed had just decreased to about 2.5 kilometers per second.
Thus, 49 aerospace carriers and dozens of heavy transport ships entered Ganymede’s orbit, beginning to slowly revolve around it.
At this moment, a wondrous scene unfolded before Tom.
The distant Sun was no longer merely a point-like structure but had taken on a certain circular shape.
However, it was still very small, only the size of a marble.
Though small, it was extremely bright, even somewhat dazzling when viewed directly with the naked eye.
Its brightness was already sufficient to illuminate the vast deep space.
By its light, one could even clearly read small print in a book.
Casting shadows from various objects was effortless.
Overall, its brightness was roughly similar to twilight on Earth.
Under the illumination of such a bright Sun, beside it was a colossal planet, almost occupying a large portion of the celestial sphere, with distinct yellow and white stripes. The latest_epɪ_sodes are on_the noveⅼfire.net
It resembled the eye of some cosmic demon, silently watching Tom’s fleet, exuding an extremely powerful sense of oppression.
Further away was an extremely bright, extremely dazzling, curved strip-like structure, like a rainbow.
It extended from behind Jupiter, like a long river in the sky, stretching to an extremely high altitude, then falling from a very distant place, re-entering the other side of Jupiter.
This was the Jupiter ring.
Beside this magnificent Jupiter ring, resembling a celestial river, there were also many bright points of light.
Those were Jupiter’s other moons.
Withdrawing his gaze from the sky and looking downward, Tom saw a colossal planet with a pale white hue.
On that pale white surface, there were also numerous grayish-white stripes.
This was the final destination of his journey of over ten billion kilometers: Ganymede.
It appeared pale white because many parts of its surface were covered by water ice, just as Earth appears azure because most of it is covered by seawater.
Those pale white stripes were massive fissures in the ice.
Such a vast planet, extremely rich in water resources and other resources, now lay before Tom like a succulent and delicious dish.
Tom was not in a hurry to begin large-scale landings immediately.
He kept the massive fleet still anchored in orbit, then dispatched numerous satellites to survey the entire planet’s topography, environment, and resource reserves from various angles, and also sent many small landing craft to land first for on-site reconnaissance.
The previous probes were, after all, too crude.
It was better to conduct a comprehensive investigation now.
In addition to Ganymede, Tom also dispatched numerous satellites and scientific research vessels to different moons, commencing the most detailed observations of every moon in the Jupiter system, as well as Jupiter itself.
Under these circumstances, the first batch of clones finally landed on Ganymede.
Looking at the vast land before them and feeling the extremely thin atmosphere, the clones busied themselves with their on-site reconnaissance mission.
While they were busy with preliminary reconnaissance work in the Jupiter system, on the other side, after several months of travel, the sole aerospace carrier that had separated from the main fleet finally arrived at its destination.
At this moment, it had entered the orbit of this planet, revolving around this vast azure planet at a speed of about 10 kilometers per second.
At this point, Tom temporarily halted the preliminary preparation work in the Jupiter system and, at the speed of light, transferred his consciousness from a clone located in the Jupiter system to a clone currently in orbit around this vast azure planet.
The consciousness transfer took about 43 minutes to complete.
The next moment, Tom opened his eyes and personally saw the planet where he had lived for several decades, where he was born, and where he grew up.