by Jules Verne
CHAPTER X. FAR INTO SPACE
A month passed away. Gallia continued its course, bearing its littlepopulation onwards, so far removed from the ordinary influence of humanpassions that it might almost be said that its sole ostensible vice wasrepresented by the greed and avarice of the miserable Jew.
After all, they were but making a voyage--a strange, yet a transient,excursion through solar regions hitherto untraversed; but if theprofessor's calculations were correct--and why should they bedoubted?--their little vessel was destined, after a two years' absence,once more to return "to port." The landing, indeed, might be a matterof difficulty; but with the good prospect before them of once againstanding on terrestrial shores, they had nothing to do at presentexcept to make themselves as comfortable as they could in their presentquarters.
Thus confident in their anticipations, neither the captain, the count,nor the lieutenant felt under any serious obligation to make anyextensive provisions for the future; they saw no necessity for expendingthe strength of the people, during the short summer that would interveneupon the long severity of winter, in the cultivation or the preservationof their agricultural resources. Nevertheless, they often foundthemselves talking over the measures they would have been driven toadopt, if they had found themselves permanently attached to theirpresent home.
Even after the turning-point in their career, they knew that at leastnine months would have to elapse before the sea would be open tonavigation; but at the very first arrival of summer they would be boundto arrange for the _Dobryna_ and the _Hansa_ to retransport themselvesand all their animals to the shores of Gourbi Island, where they wouldhave to commence their agricultural labors to secure the crops that mustform their winter store. During four months or thereabouts, they wouldlead the lives of farmers and of sportsmen; but no sooner would theirhaymaking and their corn harvest have been accomplished, than theywould be compelled again, like a swarm of bees, to retire to theirsemi-troglodyte existence in the cells of Nina's Hive.
Now and then the captain and his friends found themselves speculatingwhether, in the event of their having to spend another winter uponGallia, some means could not be devised by which the dreariness of asecond residence in the recesses of the volcano might be escaped. Wouldnot another exploring expedition possibly result in the discovery ofa vein of coal or other combustible matter, which could be turned toaccount in warming some erection which they might hope to put up?A prolonged existence in their underground quarters was felt to bemonotonous and depressing, and although it might be all very well for aman like Professor Rosette, absorbed in astronomical studies, it was illsuited to the temperaments of any of themselves for any longer periodthan was absolutely indispensable.
One contingency there was, almost too terrible to be taken into account.Was it not to be expected that the time might come when the internalfires of Gallia would lose their activity, and the stream of lava wouldconsequently cease to flow? Why should Gallia be exempt from the destinythat seemed to await every other heavenly body? Why should it not rollonwards, like the moon, a dark cold mass in space?
In the event of such a cessation of the volcanic eruption, whilst thecomet was still at so great a distance from the sun, they would indeedbe at a loss to find a substitute for what alone had served to renderlife endurable at a temperature of 60 degrees below zero. Happily,however, there was at present no symptom of the subsidence of the lava'sstream; the volcano continued its regular and unchanging discharge, andServadac, ever sanguine, declared that it was useless to give themselvesany anxiety upon the matter.
On the 15th of December, Gallia was 276,000,000 leagues from the sun,and, as it was approximately to the extremity of its axis major, wouldtravel only some 11,000,000 or 12,000,000 leagues during the month.Another world was now becoming a conspicuous object in the heavens, andPalmyrin Rosette, after rejoicing in an approach nearer to Jupiter thanany other mortal man had ever attained, was now to be privileged toenjoy a similar opportunity of contemplating the planet Saturn. Notthat the circumstances were altogether so favorable. Scarcely 31,000,000miles had separated Gallia from Jupiter; the minimum distance of Saturnwould not be less than 415,000,000 miles; but even this distance,although too great to affect the comet's progress more than had beenduly reckoned on, was considerably shorter than what had ever separatedSaturn from the earth.
To get any information about the planet from Rosette appeared quiteimpossible. Although equally by night and by day he never seemed to quithis telescope, he did not evince the slightest inclination to impart theresult of his observations. It was only from the few astronomical worksthat happened to be included in the _Dobryna's_ library that any detailscould be gathered, but these were sufficient to give a large amount ofinteresting information.
Ben Zoof, when he was made aware that the earth would be invisible tothe naked eye from the surface of Saturn, declared that he then, for hispart, did not care to learn any more about such a planet; to him itwas indispensable that the earth should remain in sight, and it was hisgreat consolation that hitherto his native sphere had never vanishedfrom his gaze.
At this date Saturn was revolving at a distance of 420,000,000 milesfrom Gallia, and consequently 874,440,000 miles from the sun, receivingonly a hundredth part of the light and heat which that luminary bestowsupon the earth. On consulting their books of reference, the colonistsfound that Saturn completes his revolution round the sun in a period of29 years and 167 days, traveling at the rate of more than 21,000 milesan hour along an orbit measuring 5,490 millions of miles in length. Hiscircumference is about 220,000 miles; his superficies, 144,000 millionsof square miles; his volume, 143,846 millions of cubic miles. Saturnis 735 times larger than the earth, consequently he is smaller thanJupiter; in mass he is only 90 times greater than the earth, which giveshim a density less than that of water. He revolves on his axis in 10hours 29 minutes, causing his own year to consist of 86,630 days; andhis seasons, on account of the great inclination of his axis to theplane of his orbit, are each of the length of seven terrestrial years.
Although the light received from the sun is comparatively feeble, thenights upon Saturn must be splendid. Eight satellites--Mimas, Enceladus,Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Titan, Hyperion, and Japetus--accompany the planet;Mimas, the nearest to its primary, rotating on its axis in 22 1/2 hours,and revolving at a distance of only 120,800 miles, whilst Japetus,the most remote, occupies 79 days in its rotation, and revolves at adistance of 2,314,000 miles.
Another most important contribution to the magnificence of the nightsupon Saturn is the triple ring with which, as a brilliant setting, theplanet is encompassed. To an observer at the equator, this ring, whichhas been estimated by Sir William Herschel as scarcely 100 miles inthickness, must have the appearance of a narrow band of light passingthrough the zenith 12,000 miles above his head. As the observer,however, increases his latitude either north or south, the band willgradually widen out into three detached and concentric rings, of whichthe innermost, dark though transparent, is 9,625 miles in breadth; theintermediate one, which is brighter than the planet itself, being 17,605miles broad; and the outer, of a dusky hue, being 8,660 miles broad.
Such, they read, is the general outline of this strange appendage, whichrevolves in its own plane in 10 hours 32 minutes. Of what matter itis composed, and how it resists disintegration, is still an unsettledquestion; but it might almost seem that the Designer of the universe, inpermitting its existence, had been willing to impart to His intelligentcreatures the manner in which celestial bodies are evolved, and thatthis remarkable ring-system is a remnant of the nebula from which Saturnwas himself developed, and which, from some unknown cause, has becomesolidified. If at any time it should disperse, it would either fallinto fragments upon the surface of Saturn, or the fragments, mutuallycoalescing, would form additional satellites to circle round the planetin its path.
To any observer stationed on the planet, between the extremes of lat.45 degrees on either side of the equator, these wonderful rings wouldpresent var
ious strange phenomena. Sometimes they would appear as anilluminated arch, with the shadow of Saturn passing over it like thehour-hand over a dial; at other times they would be like a semi-aureoleof light. Very often, too, for periods of several years, daily eclipsesof the sun must occur through the interposition of this triple ring.
Truly, with the constant rising and setting of the satellites, some withbright discs at their full, others like silver crescents, in quadrature,as well as by the encircling rings, the aspect of the heavens from thesurface of Saturn must be as impressive as it is gorgeous.
Unable, indeed, the Gallians were to realize all the marvels of thisstrange world. After all, they were practically a thousand times furtheroff than the great astronomers have been able to approach by means oftheir giant telescopes. But they did not complain; their little comet,they knew, was far safer where it was; far better out of the reach of anattraction which, by affecting their path, might have annihilated theirbest hopes.
The distances of several of the brightest of the fixed stars havebeen estimated. Amongst others, Vega in the constellation Lyra is 100millions of millions of miles away; Sirius in Canis Major, 123 millionsof millions; the Pole-star, 282 millions of millions; and Capella, 340millions of millions of miles, a figure represented by no less thanfifteen digits.
The hard numerical statement of these enormous figures, however,fails altogether in any adequate way to convey a due impression of themagnitude of these distances. Astronomers, in their ingenuity, haveendeavored to use some other basis, and have found "the velocityof light" to be convenient for their purpose. They have made theirrepresentations something in this way:
"Suppose," they say, "an observer endowed with an infinite length ofvision: suppose him stationed on the surface of Capella; looking thencetowards the earth, he would be a spectator of events that had happenedseventy years previously; transport him to a star ten times distant, andhe will be reviewing the terrestrial sphere of 720 years back; carry himaway further still, to a star so remote that it requires something lessthan nineteen centuries for light to reach it, and he would be a witnessof the birth and death of Christ; convey him further again, and heshall be looking upon the dread desolation of the Deluge; take him awayfurther yet (for space is infinite), and he shall be a spectator of theCreation of the spheres. History is thus stereotyped in space; nothingonce accomplished can ever be effaced."
Who can altogether be astonished that Palmyrin Rosette, with his burningthirst for astronomical research, should have been conscious of alonging for yet wider travel through the sidereal universe? With hiscomet now under the influence of one star, now of another, what varioussystems might he not have explored! what undreamed-of marvels might nothave revealed themselves before his gaze! The stars, fixed and immovablein name, are all of them in motion, and Gallia might have followed themin their un-tracked way.
But Gallia had a narrow destiny. She was not to be allowed to wanderaway into the range of attraction of another center; nor to mingle withthe star clusters, some of which have been entirely, others partiallyresolved; nor was she to lose herself amongst the 5,000 nebulae whichhave resisted hitherto the grasp of the most powerful reflectors. No;Gallia was neither to pass beyond the limits of the solar system, norto travel out of sight of the terrestrial sphere. Her orbit wascircumscribed to little over 1,500 millions of miles; and, in comparisonwith the infinite space beyond, this was a mere nothing.