human
My good Satellite is no longer ill.
gpt
Ah!
human
No, answered Michel,
gpt
added he, in a piteous tone,
human
One question presents itself, said Barbicane.
gpt
We cannot keep the dead body of this dog with us for the next forty-eight hours.
human
No! certainly not, replied Nicholl;
gpt
Yes, we must do so, but at the same time taking very great precautions.
human
Why?
gpt
For two reasons which you will understand, answered Barbicane.
human
The first relates to the air shut up in the projectile, and of which we must lose as little as possible.
gpt
But we manufacture the air?
human
Only in part. We make only the oxygen, my worthy Michel; and with regard to that, we must watch that the apparatus does not furnish the oxygen in too great a quantity; for an excess would bring us very serious physiological troubles. But if we make the oxygen, we do not make the azote, that medium which the lungs do not absorb, and which ought to remain intact; and that azote will escape rapidly through the open scuttles.
gpt
Oh! the time for throwing out poor Satellite?
human
Agreed; but we must act quickly.
gpt
And the second reason?
human
The second reason is that we must not let the outer cold, which is excessive, penetrate the projectile or we shall be frozen to death.
gpt
But the sun?
human
The sun warms our projectile, which absorbs its rays; but it does not warm the vacuum in which we are floating at this moment. Where there is no air, there is no more heat than diffused light; and the same with darkness: it is cold where the sun's rays do not strike direct. This temperature is only the temperature produced by the radiation of the stars; that is to say, what the terrestrial globe would undergo if the sun disappeared one day.
gpt
Which is not to be feared,
human
Who knows? said Michel Ardan.
gpt
But, in admitting that the sun does not go out, might it not happen that the earth might move away from it?
human
There! said Barbicane,
gpt
And, continued Michel,
human
That _might_ happen, indeed, replied Barbicane,
gpt
And why not?
human
Because the heat and the cold would be equalized on our globe. It has been calculated that, had our earth been carried along in its course by the comet of 1861, at its perihelion, that is, its nearest approach to the sun, it would have undergone a heat 28,000 times greater than that of summer. But this heat, which is sufficient to evaporate the waters, would have formed a thick ring of cloud, which would have modified that excessive temperature; hence the compensation between the cold of the aphelion and the heat of the perihelion.
gpt
At how many degrees, asked Nicholl,
human
Formerly, replied Barbicane,
gpt
Pooh! said Michel,
human
It is very much, replied Barbicane;
gpt
If I mistake not, said Nicholl,
human
M. Pouillet, another savant, estimates the temperature of space at 250° Fahrenheit below zero. We shall, however, be able to verify these calculations for ourselves.
gpt
Not at present; because the solar rays, beating directly upon our thermometer, would give, on the contrary, a very high temperature. But, when we arrive in the moon, during its fifteen days of night at either face, we shall have leisure to make the experiment, for our satellite lies in a vacuum.
human
What do you mean by a _vacuum?_ asked Michel.
gpt
Is it perfectly such?
human
It is absolutely void of air.
gpt
And is the air replaced by nothing whatever?
human
By the ether only,
gpt
And pray what is the ether?
human
The ether, my friend, is an agglomeration of imponderable atoms, which, relatively to their dimensions, are as far removed from each other as the celestial bodies are in space. It is these atoms which, by their vibratory motion, produce both light and heat in the universe.