Off on a Comet (31 page)

He suspended the money bag to the hook; the needle oscillated, and
stopped. "Read it off!" he said.

The weight registered was one hundred and thirty-three grammes.

"There, gentlemen, one hundred and thirty-three grammes! Less than
one-seventh of a kilogramme! You see, consequently, that the force of
gravity here on Gallia is not one-seventh of what it is upon the earth!"

"Interesting!" cried Servadac, "most interesting! But let us go on and
compute the mass."

"No, captain, the density first," said Rosette.

"Certainly," said the lieutenant; "for, as we already know the volume,
we can determine the mass as soon as we have ascertained the density."

The professor took up the cube of rock. "You know what this is," he went
on to say. "You know, gentlemen, that this block is a cube hewn from
the substance of which everywhere, all throughout your voyage of
circumnavigation, you found Gallia to be composed—a substance to which
your geological attainments did not suffice to assign a name."

"Our curiosity will be gratified," said Servadac, "if you will enlighten
our ignorance."

But Rosette did not take the slightest notice of the interruption.

"A substance it is which no doubt constitutes the sole material of
the comet, extending from its surface to its innermost depths. The
probability is that it would be so; your experience confirms that
probability: you have found no trace of any other substance. Of this
rock here is a solid decimeter; let us get at its weight, and we shall
have the key which will unlock the problem of the whole weight of
Gallia. We have demonstrated that the force of attraction here is only
one-seventh of what it is upon the earth, and shall consequently have to
multiply the apparent weight of our cube by seven, in order to ascertain
its proper weight. Do you understand me, goggle-eyes?"

This was addressed to Ben Zoof, who was staring hard at him. "No!" said
Ben Zoof.

"I thought not; it is of no use waiting for your puzzle-brains to make
it out. I must talk to those who can understand."

The professor took the cube, and, on attaching it to the hook of the
steelyard, found that its apparent weight was one kilogramme and four
hundred and thirty grammes.

"Here it is, gentlemen; one kilogramme, four hundred and thirty grammes.
Multiply that by seven; the product is, as nearly as possible, ten
kilogrammes. What, therefore, is our conclusion? Why, that the density
of Gallia is just about double the density of the earth, which we know
is only five kilogrammes to a cubic decimeter. Had it not been for
this greater density, the attraction of Gallia would only have been
one-fifteenth instead of one-seventh of the terrestrial attraction."

The professor could not refrain from exhibiting his gratification that,
however inferior in volume, in density, at least, his comet had the
advantage over the earth.

Nothing further now remained than to apply the investigations thus
finished to the determining of the mass or weight. This was a matter of
little labor.

"Let me see," said the captain; "what is the force of gravity upon the
various planets?"

"You can't mean, Servadac, that you have forgotten that? But you always
were a disappointing pupil."

The captain could not help himself: he was forced to confess that his
memory had failed him.

"Well, then," said the professor, "I must remind you. Taking the
attraction on the earth as 1, that on Mercury is 1.15, on Venus it
is.92, on Mars.5, and on Jupiter 2.45; on the moon the attraction is.16,
whilst on the surface of the sun a terrestrial kilogramme would weigh 28
kilogrammes."

"Therefore, if a man upon the surface of the sun were to fall down, he
would have considerable difficulty in getting up again. A cannon ball,
too, would only fly a few yards," said Lieutenant Procope.

"A jolly battle-field for cowards!" exclaimed Ben Zoof.

"Not so jolly, Ben Zoof, as you fancy," said his master; "the cowards
would be too heavy to run away."

Ben Zoof ventured the remark that, as the smallness of Gallia secured to
its inhabitants such an increase of strength and agility, he was almost
sorry that it had not been a little smaller still.

"Though it could not anyhow have been very much smaller," he added,
looking slyly at the professor.

"Idiot!" exclaimed Rosette. "Your head is too light already; a puff of
wind would blow it away."

"I must take care of my head, then, and hold it on," replied the
irrepressible orderly.

Unable to get the last word, the professor was about to retire, when
Servadac detained him.

"Permit me to ask you one more question," he said. "Can you tell me what
is the nature of the soil of Gallia?"

"Yes, I can answer that. And in this matter I do not think your
impertinent orderly will venture to put Montmartre into the comparison.
This soil is of a substance not unknown upon the earth." And speaking
very slowly, the professor said: "It contains 70 per cent. of tellurium,
and 30 per cent. of gold."

Servadac uttered an exclamation of surprise.

"And the sum of the specific gravities of these two substances is 10,
precisely the number that represents Gallia's density."

"A comet of gold!" ejaculated the captain.

"Yes; a realization of what the illustrious Maupertuis has already
deemed probable," replied the astronomer.

"If Gallia, then, should ever become attached to the earth, might it not
bring about an important revolution in all monetary affairs?" inquired
the count.

"No doubt about it!" said Rosette, with manifest satisfaction. "It would
supply the world with about 246,000 trillions of francs."

"It would make gold about as cheap as dirt, I suppose," said Servadac.

The last observation, however, was entirely lost upon the professor, who
had left the hall with an air almost majestic, and was already on his
way to the observatory.

"And what, I wonder, is the use of all these big figures?" said Ben Zoof
to his master, when next day they were alone together.

"That's just the charm of them, my good fellow," was the captain's cool
reply, "that they are of no use whatever."

Except as to the time the comet would take to revolve round the sun,
it must be confessed that all the professor's calculations had
comparatively little interest for anyone but himself, and he was
consequently left very much to pursue his studies in solitude.

The following day was the 1st of August, or, according to Rosette,
the 63rd of April. In the course of this month Gallia would travel
16,500,000 leagues, attaining at the end a distance of 197,000,000
leagues from the sun. This would leave 81,000,000 leagues more to be
traversed before reaching the aphelion of the 15th of January, after
which it would begin once more to approach the sun.

But meanwhile, a marvelous world, never before so close within the range
of human vision, was revealing itself. No wonder that Palmyrin Rosette
cared so little to quit his observatory; for throughout those calm,
clear Gallian nights, when the book of the firmament lay open before
him, he could revel in a spectacle which no previous astronomer had ever
been permitted to enjoy.

The glorious orb that was becoming so conspicuous an object was none
other than the planet Jupiter, the largest of all the bodies existing
within the influence of solar attraction. During the seven months that
had elapsed since its collision with the earth, the comet had been
continuously approaching the planet, until the distance between them was
scarcely more than 61,000,000 leagues, and this would go on diminishing
until the 15th of October.

Under these circumstances, was it perfectly certain that no danger
could accrue? Was not Gallia, when its pathway led it into such close
proximity to this enormous planet, running a risk of being attracted
within its influence? Might not that influence be altogether disastrous?
The professor, it is true, in his estimate of the duration of his
comet's revolution, had represented that he had made all proper
allowances for any perturbations that would be caused either by
Jupiter, by Saturn, or by Mars; but what if there were any errors in
his calculations? what if there should be any elements of disturbance on
which he had not reckoned?

Speculations of this kind became more and more frequent, and Lieutenant
Procope pointed out that the danger incurred might be of a fourfold
character: first, that the comet, being irresistibly attracted, might
be drawn on to the very surface of the planet, and there annihilated;
secondly, that as the result of being brought under that attraction, it
might be transformed into a satellite, or even a sub-satellite, of that
mighty world; thirdly, that it might be diverted into a new orbit, which
would never be coincident with the ecliptic; or, lastly, its course
might be so retarded that it would only reach the ecliptic too late to
permit any junction with the earth. The occurrence of any one of these
contingencies would be fatal to their hopes of reunion with the globe,
from which they had been so strangely severed.

To Rosette, who, without family ties which he had never found leisure or
inclination to contract, had no shadow of desire to return to the earth,
it would be only the first of these probabilities that could give him
any concern. Total annihilation might not accord with his views, but he
would be quite content for Gallia to miss its mark with regard to
the earth, indifferent whether it revolved as a new satellite around
Jupiter, or whether it wended its course through the untraversed regions
of the milky way. The rest of the community, however, by no means
sympathized with the professor's sentiments, and the following month was
a period of considerable doubt and anxiety.

On the 1st of September the distance between Gallia and Jupiter was
precisely the same as the mean distance between the earth and the sun;
on the 16th, the distance was further reduced to 26,000,000 leagues. The
planet began to assume enormous dimensions, and it almost seemed as if
the comet had already been deflected from its elliptical orbit, and was
rushing on in a straight line towards the overwhelming luminary.

The more they contemplated the character of this gigantic planet, the
more they became impressed with the likelihood of a serious perturbation
in their own course. The diameter of Jupiter is 85,390 miles, nearly
eleven times as great as that of the earth; his volume is 1,387 times,
and his mass 300 times greater; and although the mean density is only
about a quarter of that of the earth, and only a third of that of water
(whence it has been supposed that the superficies of Jupiter is liquid),
yet his other proportions were large enough to warrant the apprehension
that important disturbances might result from his proximity.

"I forget my astronomy, lieutenant," said Servadac. "Tell me all you can
about this formidable neighbor."

The lieutenant having refreshed his memory by reference to Flammarion's
Recits de l'Infini
, of which he had a Russian translation, and some
other books, proceeded to recapitulate that Jupiter accomplishes his
revolution round the sun in 4,332 days 14 hours and 2 minutes; that he
travels at the rate of 467 miles a minute along an orbit measuring 2,976
millions of miles; and that his rotation on his axis occupies only 9
hours and 55 minutes.

"His days, then, are shorter than ours?" interrupted the captain.

"Considerably," answered the lieutenant, who went on to describe how the
displacement of a point at the equator of Jupiter was twenty-seven times
as rapid as on the earth, causing the polar compression to be about
2,378 miles; how the axis, being nearly perpendicular, caused the
days and nights to be nearly of the same length, and the seasons to be
invariable; and how the amount of light and heat received by the planet
is only a twenty-fifth part of that received by the earth, the average
distance from the sun being 475,693,000 miles.

"And how about these satellites? Sometimes, I suppose, Jupiter has the
benefit of four moons all shining at once?" asked Servadac.

Of the satellites, Lieutenant Procope went on to say that one is rather
smaller than our own moon; that another moves round its primary at an
interval about equal to the moon's distance from ourselves; but that
they all revolve in considerably less time: the first takes only l day
18 hours 27 minutes; the second takes 3 days 13 hours 14 minutes; the
third, 7 days 3 hours 42 minutes; whilst the largest of all takes but 16
days 16 hours 32 minutes. The most remote revolves round the planet at a
distance of 1,192,820 miles.

"They have been enlisted into the service of science," said Procope. "It
is by their movements that the velocity of light has been calculated;
and they have been made available for the determination of terrestrial
longitudes."

"It must be a wonderful sight," said the captain.

"Yes," answered Procope. "I often think Jupiter is like a prodigious
clock with four hands."

"I only hope that we are not destined to make a fifth hand," answered
Servadac.

Such was the style of the conversation that was day by day reiterated
during the whole month of suspense. Whatever topic might be started, it
seemed soon to settle down upon the huge orb that was looming upon them
with such threatening aspect.

"The more remote that these planets are from the sun," said Procope,
"the more venerable and advanced in formation are they found to be.
Neptune, situated 2,746,271,000 miles from the sun, issued from the
solar nebulosity, thousands of millions of centuries back. Uranus,
revolving 1,753,851,000 miles from the center of the planetary system,
is of an age amounting to many hundred millions of centuries. Jupiter,
the colossal planet, gravitating at a distance of 475,693,000 miles,
may be reckoned as 70,000,000 centuries old. Mars has existed for
1,000,000,000 years at a distance of 139,212,000 miles. The earth,
91,430,000 miles from the sun, quitted his burning bosom 100,000,000
years ago. Venus, revolving now 66,131,000 miles away, may be assigned
the age of 50,000,000 years at least; and Mercury, nearest of all, and
youngest of all, has been revolving at a distance of 35,393,000 miles
for the space of 10,000,000 years—the same time as the moon has been
evolved from the earth."