A Journey in Other Worlds: A Romance of the Future

by John Jacob Astor

  CHAPTER III.

  HEAVENLY BODIES.

  The following day, while in their observatory, they saw somethingnot many miles ahead. They watched it for hours, and in fact allday, but notwithstanding their tremendous speed they came butlittle nearer.

  "They say a stern chase is a long one," said Bearwarden; but thatbeats anything I have ever seen."

  After a while, however, they found they WERE nearer, the timetaken having been in part due to the deceptive distance, whichwas greater than they supposed.

  "A comet!" exclaimed Cortlandt excitedly. "We shall really beable to examine it near."

  "It's going in our direction," said Ayrault, "and at almostexactly our speed."

  While the sun shone full upon it they brought their camera intoplay, and again succeeded in photographing a heavenly body atclose range. The nucleus or head was of course turned towardsthe sun; while the tail, which they could see faintly, precededit, as the comet was receding towards the cold and dark depths ofspace. The head was only a few miles in diameter, for it was asmall comet, and was composed of grains and masses of stone andmeteoric iron. Many of the grains were no larger than peas ormustard-seeds; no mass was more than four feet in diameter, andall of them had very irregular shapes. The space between theparticles was never less than one hundred times their masses.

  "We can move about within it," said Ayrault, as the Callistoentered the aggregation of particles, and moved slowly forwardamong them.

  The windows in the dome, being made of toughened glass, setsomewhat slantingly so as to deflect anything touching them, andhaving, moreover, the pressure of the inside air to sustain them,were fairly safe, while the windows in the sides and base werebut little exposed. Whenever a large mass seemed dangerouslynear the glass, they applied an apergetic shock to it and sent itkiting among its fellows. At these times the Callisto recoiledslightly also, the resulting motion in either being in inverseratio to its weight. There was constant and incessant movementamong the individual fragments, but it was not rotary. Nothingseemed to be revolving about anything else; all were moving,apparently swinging back and forth, but no collisions took place.When the separate particles got more than a certain distanceapart they reapproached one another, but when seemingly withinabout one hundred diameters of each other they swung off in someother direction. The motion was like that of innumerableharp-strings, which may approach but never strike one another.After a time the Callisto seemed to become endowed with the sameproperty that the fragments possessed; for it and they repelledone another, on a near approach, after which nothing came verynear.

  Much of the material was like slag from a furnace, havingevidently been partly fused. Whether this heat was the result ofcollision or of its near approach to the sun at perihelion, theycould not tell, though the latter explanation seemed most simpleand probable. When at about the centre of the nucleus they werein semi-darkness--not twilight, for any ray that succeeded inpenetrating was dazzlingly brilliant, and the shadows, their ownincluded, were inky black. As they approached the farther sideand the sunlight decreased, they found that a diffused luminositypervaded everything. It was sufficiently bright to enable themto see the dark side of the meteoric masses, and, on emergingfrom the nucleus in total darkness, they found the shadowstretching thousands of miles before them into space.

  "I now understand," said Bearwarden, "why stars of the sixth andseventh magnitude can be seen through thousands of miles of acomet's tail. It is simply because there is nothing in it. Thereason ANY stars are obscured is because the light in the tail,however faint, is brighter than they, and that light is all thatthe caudal appendage consists of, though what produces it Iconfess I am unable to explain. I also see why the tail alwaysstretches away from the sun, because near by it is overwhelmed bythe more powerful light; in fact, I suspect it is principally inthe comet's shadow that the tail is visible. It is strange thatno one ever thought of that before, or that any one feared theearth's passing through the tail of a comet. It is obvious to menow that if there were any material substance, any gas, howeverrarefied, in this hairlike[1] accompaniment, it would immediatelyfall to the comparatively heavy head,and surround that as a centre."

  [1] Comet means literally a hair.

  "How, then," asked Cortlandt, "do you account for the spacesbetween those stones? However slight gravitation might bebetween some of the grains, if it existed at all, or wasunopposed by some other force, with sufficient time--and theyhave eternity--every comet would come together like a planet intoone solid mass. Perhaps some similar force maintains gases inthe distended tail, though I know of no such, or even anyanalogous manifestation on earth. If the law on which we havebeen brought up, that 'every atom in the universe attracts everyother atom,' were without exceptions or modifications, that cometcould not continue to exist in its present form. Until we getsome additional illustration, however, we shall be short of datawith which to formulate any iconoclastic hypothesis. The sourceof the light, I must admit, also puzzles me greatly. There iscertainly no heat to which we can attribute it."

  Having gone beyond the fragments, they applied a strong repulsioncharge to the comet, creating thereby a perfect whirlpool amongits particles, and quickly left it. Half an hour later theyagain shut off the current, as the Callisto's speed wassufficient.

  For some time they had been in the belt of asteroids, but as yetthey had seen none near. The morning following their experiencewith the comet, however, they went to their observatory afterbreakfast as usual, and, on pointing their glasses forward,espied a comparatively large body before them, a little to theirright.

  "That must be Pallas," said Cortlandt, scrutinizing it closely."It was discovered by Olbers, in 1802, and was the secondasteroid found, Ceres having been the first, in 1801. It has adiameter of about three hundred miles, being one of the largestof these small planets. The most wonderful thing about it is theinclination of its orbit--thirty-five degrees--to the plane ofthe ecliptic; which means that at each revolution in its orbit,it swings that much above and below the imaginary plane cuttingthe sun at its equator, from which the earth and other largerplanets vary but little. This no doubt is due to the nearapproach and disturbing attraction of some large comet, or elseit was flung above or below the ordinary plane in the catastrophethat we think befell the large planet that doubtless formerlyexisted where we now find this swarm. You can see that its pathmakes a considerable angle to the plane of the ecliptic, and thatit is now about crossing the line."

  It soon presented the phase of a half moon, but the waviness ofthe straight line, as in the case of Venus and Mercury, showedthat the size of the mountains must be tremendous compared withthe mass of the body, some of them being obviously fifteen mileshigh. The intense blackness of the shadows, as on the moon,convinced them there was no trace of atmosphere.

  "There being no air," said Cortlandt, "it is safe to assume thereis no water, which helps to account for the great inequalities onthe body's surface, since the mountains will seem higher whensurrounded by dry ocean- bottom than they would if water camehalfway up their sides. Undoubtedly, however, the main cause oftheir height is the slight effect of gravitation on an asteroid,and the fact that the shrinking of the interior, and consequentfolding of the crust in ridges, may have continued for a timeafter there was no longer water on the surface to cut them down.

  "The temperature and condition of a body," continued Cortlandt,"seem to depend entirely on its size. In the sun we have anincandescent, gaseous star, though its spots and the colour ofits rays show that it is becoming aged, or, to be more accurate,advanced in its evolutionary development. Then comes a greatjump, for Jupiter has but about one fourteen-hundredth of themass of the sun, and we expect to find on it a firm crust, andthat the planet itself is at about the fourth or fifth period ofdevelopment, described by Moses as days. Saturn is doubtlesssomewhat more advanced. The earth we know has been habitablemany hundreds of thousands or millions
of years, though threefourths of its surface is still covered by water. In Mars we seea further step, three fourths of its surface being land. InMercury, could we study it better, or in the larger satellites ofJupiter or Saturn, we might find a stepping-stone from Mars tothe moon, perhaps with no water, but still having air, and beinghabitable in all other respects. In our own satellite we see aworld that has died, though its death from an astronomical pointof view is comparatively recent, while this little Pallas hasbeen dead longer, being probably chilled through and through.From this I conclude that all bodies in the solar system had onegenesis, and were part of the same nebulous mass. But this doesnot include the other systems and nebulae; for, compared withthem, our sun, as we have seen, is itself advanced and smallbeside such stars as Sirius having diameters of twelve millionmiles."

  As they left Pallas between themselves and the sun, it became acrescent and finally disappeared.

  Two days later they sighted another asteroid exactly ahead. Theyexamined it closely, and concluded it must be Hilda, put down inthe astronomies as No. 153, and having almost the greatest meandistance of any of these small bodies from the sun.

  When they were so near that the disk was plainly visible to theunaided eye, Hilda passed between them and Jupiter, eclipsing it.To their surprise, the light was not instantly shut off, as whenthe moon occults a star, but there was evident refraction.

  "By George!" said Bearwarden, "here is an asteroid that HAS anatmosphere."

  There was no mistaking it. They soon discovered a small ice-capat one pole, and then made out oceans and continents, withmountains, forests, rivers, and green fields. The sight lastedbut a few moments before they swept by, but they secured severalphotographs, and carried a vivid impression in their minds.Hilda appeared to be about two hundred miles in diameter.

  "How do you account for that living world," Bearwarden askedCortlandt, "on your theory of size and longevity?"

  "There are two explanations," replied Cortlandt, "if the theory,as I still believe, is correct. Hilda has either been brought tothis system from some other less matured, in the train of acomet, and been captured by the immense power of "Jupiter, whichmight account for the eccentricity of its orbit, or some accidenthas happened to rejuvenate it here. A collision with anotherminor planet moving in an orbit that crossed its own, or with thehead of a large comet, would have reconverted it into a star,perhaps after it had long been cold. A comet may first have sochanged the course of one of two small bodies as to make themcollide. This seems to me the most plausible theory. Over ahundred years ago the English astronomer, Chambers, wrote ofhaving found traces of atmosphere in some of these minor planets,but it was generally thought he was mistaken. One reason we knowso little about this great swarm of minor planets is, that tillrecently none of them showed a disk to the telescope. Inasmuchas only their light was visible, they were indistinguishable fromstars, except by their slow motion. A hundred years ago onlythree hundred and fifty had been discovered; our photographicstar-charts have since then shown the number recorded to exceedone thousand."

  CHAPTER IV.

  PREPARING TO ALIGHT.

  That afternoon Ayrault brought out some statistical tables he hadcompiled from a great number of books, and also a diagram of thecomparative sizes of the planets. "I have been not a littlepuzzled at the discrepancies between even the best authors," hesaid, "scarcely any two being exactly alike, while every decadehas seen accepted theories radically changed." Saying which, hespread out the result of his labours (shown on the followingpages), which the three friends then studied.

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  (1) Mean distance from sun in millions of miles(2) Semimajor axis of orbit, earth's distance as 1(3) Eccentricity of orbit(4) Planets inclination of orbit to elliptic(5) Light at perihelion(6) Light at apehelion(7) Heat, earth as 1

  (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

  Mercury... 36.0 0.387 0.2056 7@0'8" 10.58 4.59 6.67

  Venus..... 67.2 0.723 0.0068 3@23'35" 1.94 1.91 1.91

  The Earth. 92.9 1.000 0.068 0@0'0" 1.03 0.997 1.00

  Mars......141.5 1.524 0.0933 1@51'2" 0.52 0.360 1.43

  Asteroids 204.4 to 2.200 0.4 to 5@-35@ 325.2 to 3.500 0.34

  Jupiter.. 483.3 5.203 0.0483 1@18'41" 0.04 0.034 0.037

  Saturn... 886.0 9.539 0.0561 2@29'40" 0.012 0.0099 0.011

  Uranus.. 1781.9 19.183 0.0463 0@46'20" 0.0027 0.0025 0.003

  Neptune. 2791.6 30.055 0.0090 1@47'2" 0.0011 0.0011 0.001-----------------------------------------------------------------

  (1) MOVEMENT IN ORBIT. Velocity compared with earth as 1.(2) MOVEMENT IN ORBIT. Period of revolution in years and days.(3) MOVEMENT IN ORBIT. Orbital velocity in miles per second.(4) Mean diameter in miles(5) Surface compared with earth as 1.(6) Volume compared with earth as 1.(7) Mass compared with earth as 1.

  Planets (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

  Mercury..... 0.88 23 to 35 1.6 3,000 0.14 0.056 0.13

  Venus.....0.224 1/2 21.9 1.17 7,700 0.94 0.92 0.78

  The Earth... 1.00 18.5 1.0 7,918 1.00 1.00 1.00

  Mars........ 1.88 15.0 0.81 4,230 0.28 0.139 0.124

  Asteroids... 3.29 .... .... From a few to 6.56 miles to 300

  Jupiter..... 11.86 8.1 0.44 86,500 118.3 1309.00 316.0

  Saturn...... 29.46 6.0 0.32 1,000 0.4 760.0 95.0

  Uranus...... 84.02 4.2 0.23 31,900 16.3 65.0 14.7

  Neptune.... 164.78 3.4 0.18 34,800 19.3 90.0 17.1

  -----------------------------------------------------------------(1) Length of day. hrs. min. sec.(2) Length of seasons(3) DENSITY Compared with earth as 1(4) DENSITY Compared with water as 1(5) FORCE OF GRAVITY AT SURFACE OF PLANET Compared with earth as1.(6) FORCE OF GRAVITY AT SURFACE OF PLANET Bodies fall in onesecond.(7) Inclination of axis.

  Planets (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

  Mercury. ........ ......... 1.24 7.17 0.85 13.7 .....

  Venus... 23 21 22 ........ 0.92 5.21 0.83 13.4 53+

  The Earth. ..... Spring, 93 1.00 5.67 1.00 16.09 23 1/2 Summer, 93Terrestrial days Autumn, 90 Winter,89

  Mars... 24 37 23 Spring, 191 0.96 2.54 0.38 6.2 27 1/2 Summer, 181 Martian days Autumn, 149 Winter, 147

  Asteroids........................................................

  Jupiter. 9 55 28 ......... 0.22 1.29 2.55 40.98 1 1/2

  Saturn..10 29 17 ......... 0.13 0.63 1.15 18.53 27

  Uranus. ....... ......... 0.18 1.41 0.91 14.6 102(?)

  Neptune......... ......... 0.20 0 0.88 14.2 .....

  -----------------------------------------------------------------

  "You see," Ayrault explained, "on Jupiter we shall need ourapergetic outfits to enable us to make long marches, while onSaturn they will not be necessary, the increase in our weight asa result of that planet's size being considerably less than theusual load carried by the Roman soldier."

  "I do not imagine," said Cortlandt, "we should long be troubledby gravitation without our apergetic outfits even on Jupiter,for, though our weight will be more than doubled, we can take offone quarter of the whole by remaining near the equator, theirrapid rotation having apparently been given providentially to allthe large planets. Nature will adapt herself to this change, asto all others, very readily. Although the reclamation of thevast areas of the North American Arctic Archipelago, Alaska,Siberia, and Antarctic Wilkes Land, from the death-grip of theice in which they have been held will relieve the pressure ofpopulation for another century, at the end of
that time it willsurely be felt again; it is therefore a consolation to feel thatthe mighty planets Jupiter and Saturn, which we are coming tolook upon as our heritage, will not crush the life out of anyhuman beings by their own weight that may alight upon them."

  Before going to bed that evening they decided to be up early thenext day, to study Jupiter, which was already a brilliant object.

  The following morning, on awakening, they went at once to theirobservatory, and found that Jupiter's disk was plainly visible tothe naked eye, and before night it seemed as large as the fullmoon.

  They then prepared to check the Callisto's headlong speed, whichJupiter's attraction was beginning to increase. When about twomillion miles from the great planet, which was considerably ontheir left, they espied Callisto ahead and slightly on theirright, as Deepwaters had calculated it would be. Applying a mildrepulsion to this--which was itself quite a world, with itsdiameter of over three thousand miles, though evidently as coldand dead as the earth's old moon--they retarded their forwardrush, knowing that the resulting motion towards Jupiter would behelped by the giant's pull. Wishing to be in good condition fortheir landing, they divided the remainder of the night intowatches, two going to sleep at a time, the man on duty standingby to control the course and to get photographic negatives, onwhich, when they were developed, they found two crescent-shapedcontinents, a speckled region, and a number of islands. By 7 A.M., according to Eastern standard time, they were but fiftythousand miles from Jupiter's surface, the gigantic globe fillingnearly one side of the sky. In preparation for a sally, they gottheir guns and accoutrements ready, and then gave a partingglance at the car. Their charge of electricity for developingthe repulsion seemed scarcely touched, and they had still anabundant supply of oxygen and provisions. The barometerregistered twenty-nine inches, showing that they had not lostmuch air in the numerous openings of the vestibule. The pressurewas about what would be found at an altitude of a few hundredfeet, part of the rarefaction being no doubt due to the fact thatthey did not close the windows until at a considerable heightabove Van Cortlandt Park.

  They saw they should alight in a longitude on which the sun hadjust risen, the rocky tops of the great mountains shining likehelmets in its rays. Soon they felt a sharp checking of theirforward motion, and saw, from the changed appearance of the starsand the sun, that they had entered the atmosphere of their newhome.

  Not even did Columbus, standing at the prow of the Santa Maria,with the New World before him, feel the exultation and delightexperienced by these latter-day explorers of the twenty-firstcentury. Their first adventures on landing the reader alreadyknows.