A Message From Amalthea

Amalthea, the third moon of Jupiter, was discovered on September 9th 1892 by a human called Edward Barnard. It is one of an incalculable number of gigantic irregular rocks that scatter the Universe. Barnard's birthplace - Earth - was at that time preoccupied with hosting sentient life, though neither the planet nor the species on it ever had much luck communicating. Amalthea watched Earth and, as is often the case for gigantic irregular rocks, felt lonely.

Barnard later discovered a star. The star itself had always known it had existed, and wasn't bothered about being discovered by a spec of thinking carbon 6 lightyears away. It was a red dwarf and had much more important things to think about, such as trying very hard to not run out of hydrogen.

The star was eventually named "Barnard's Star", which is predictably unimaginative. However, Amalthea liked her name - a caring mother who raised a young Jupiter, God of gods, the very planet she found herself orbiting. Having a name made Amalthea feel less alone. She hoped the humans would get in touch soon. She was sure they'd love to pop round for tea, and meet the sentient life evolving under her icecaps.

Juju Adams
Jing Chun Tan
Inspired by Otomata