Chapter 8 Chapter 8 Collision with Venus?

The sun is coming out.The twinkling stars disappeared one after another in the bright sunlight.Selvadak's observation of the starry sky had to be temporarily suspended. If there are no clouds in the sky tonight, it can still continue at that time. As for the so-called "moon", its light had been blocked by a dark cloud, and Servadac searched for a long time, but could not find it.It seems that it has gone far away, or traveled to other places, beyond what I can see by myself. The sky was clear.After a westerly wind blew in the sky, it has now completely subsided.The sun still rises in the west and sets in the east without fail.Day and night are still six hours, no difference.It can be seen that the sun has not left the newly formed equator area, and the Gulbi Island where Servadac and Ben's husband are located is also on the equator.

The temperature is still rising.Captain Selvadak walked to the temperature microphone hanging in the room several times a day to look at it. On January 15, he found that the temperature indicated on the thermometer in the shade was 50°C. The collapsed thatched hut had not yet been repaired, and Servadak and Ben-Zov cleaned a large room in the stone hut and settled there.Not only did they escape the storm in this stone house, but they also escaped the scorching sun.The weather is getting hotter and hotter.The sky is always cloudless, without a cloud to hide the scorching sun.The fiery heat wave has never been encountered in equatorial Africa such as Senegal.If things go on like this, all the plants on the island are facing the danger of dying.

Ben Yizoff always sticks to his creed and never yields to the hot weather.He was sweating profusely all day long, but despite the captain's dissuasion, he stood on the rock under the scorching sun and watched the movement in the sea.The Mediterranean Sea is calm and there are no ships, but he still sticks there.His body is really made of iron, despite the scorching sun, he stayed on the rock without moving. One day, Captain Servadac looked at his face and joked to him: "Why are you not afraid of heat at all? It seems that you were born in Gabon." "No, Captain, I am an ancestor of Montmartre, and the two places are similar anyway."

It would be useless to argue with the honest man, since he said that his hometown was as hot as the tropics. Of course, this extremely hot weather did not fail to have an impact on the plants on Gulby Island, and the consequences were soon apparent.Within a few days, the leaf buds on the fruit tree bloomed, followed by flowering and fruiting.The same goes for crops.The ears of wheat and corn grow so fast that it can be seen with the naked eye, and the grasslands are covered with lush green pastures.So soon it was time to harvest pastures, crops and fruits.Summer and fall have completely blended together.

Who said Captain Servadac knew nothing about astronomy?He believes that the reasons for the above situation are: "The inclination of the earth's axis has been changed. As all show, the earth's axis is now at right angles to the ecliptic, so that conditions on earth are exactly the same as on Jupiter. There are no more seasons, and the climate is the same throughout the year. Spring The difference between summer, autumn and winter no longer exists." But he still can't understand: "What is the root cause of these changes?" The sudden premature maturity of the crops made the captain and Ben Yizoff very embarrassed.Evidently, they are extremely understaffed to do so much work on the farm at the same time.Relying on the two of them, there is no way to harvest this much grain.In addition, the weather is so hot that it is not unbearable for ordinary people to stay in the open for a long time, and it is much better to be in a stone house.Besides, there is plenty of food in the stone house.Since the Mediterranean Sea is calm now, perhaps a ship will appear on the sea soon.The water transportation in this area is already very developed. In addition to the liners of state-owned companies that travel to and from various coastal ports, there are also various ships from other countries that often come to the coast of Algeria.

There is absolutely nothing far-fetched in this analysis.But for some reason, there is always no shadow of a boat on the sea.Ben Yizoff stood watching on the rock all day long. If he hadn't ordered an umbrella to protect him from the scorching sun, he would have been baked into a meatloaf long ago. During this period, the captain had been trying his best to recall the knowledge he had learned in middle school and military academy, although he couldn't remember much.He forgot to eat and sleep, and worked tirelessly on various calculations, hoping to clarify these new situations that appeared on the earth, but he did not come up with any tricks.But he thought that since the rotation of the earth had changed, its revolution around the sun would also change.Therefore, the number of days in a year can no longer remain the same, and the result must be either increased or shortened.

The orbit of the earth has changed and it is approaching the sun, there is no doubt about it.This is not only because the temperature is rising day by day, but also from other observations of Captain Servadak. For example, the sun that greets the eyes is now twice as large as what Selvadak saw before the big change.Such a large sun can only be seen on Venus, that is, at a place 100 million kilometers away from the sun.Therefore, we can only think that the distance between the earth and the sun is now 100 million kilometers instead of 150 million kilometers.The question is whether this distance will continue to shrink.If so, the earth will lose its balance and be attracted to the surface of the sun, where it will be completely reduced to ashes.

The clear night sky provides good conditions for Selvadak to observe the stars carefully.There are countless shining stars and planets hanging on the sky.The stars stood out like the letters of a gigantic alphabet which, unfortunately, he did not know and could not read.Of course, the size of the stars and their distance from each other, he could not see the change.For example, the sun moves 60 million kilometers between Hercules every year, and the change in its position is almost imperceptible, because the distance between these celestial bodies is so great.Similarly, star a in Bootes moves in space at a speed of 48 kilometers per second, which is three times that of the earth.

Changes in stars are difficult to see, but planets, especially those moving inside Earth's orbit, are not. This is the case with Venus and Mercury.Venus moves in an orbit of an average of 108 million kilometers from the sun, and Mercury moves in an orbit of 60 million kilometers from the sun.Therefore, Mercury is the inner planet of Venus, and both stars are the inner planets of Earth.After a long period of observation and thinking, Captain Servadac believed that the light and heat received by the earth from the sun is almost equal to that of Venus, which is equivalent to twice the heat received by the earth before the cataclysm.Not only could it be concluded that the earth was very close to the sun, but it was all the more certain when he saw this admirably beautiful planet every morning and evening.

Venus, the ancients called it Xiaoxing, Evening Star or Shepherd Star, also known as Venus Star, Taibai Star and Changgeng Star.No planet has ever had so many wonderful names except the moon.This star, Captain Servadac, now saw, had become quite large, almost equivalent to a small moon, and its waxing and waning were clearly visible even to the naked eye.Regardless of whether it is full circle or crescent-shaped, all outlines are very clear.When it is in crescent shape, sunlight refracted by its atmosphere can reach areas where it cannot be seen.The surface of Venus can break down sunlight, which means that there is an atmosphere there.It is the bright spots shown by the crescent, which Schrotter has rightly identified as volcanoes, about ten times as high as Mont Blanc, or one hundred and forty-fourth the radius of Venus. .

In this way, Servadac has sufficient reason to believe that the distance between Venus and the earth is more than eight million kilometers.He told Ben-Zoff about this view. "Captain," said Ben-Zoff, "wouldn't it be better to be nearer?" "For the two armies that are hostile to each other, eight million kilometers is a large distance, but for the two planets, it is nothing." "What will happen?" "God, Earth might collide with Venus." "Captain, is there air on Venus?" "Have." "Is there any water?" "Of course there is." "Well, let's take this opportunity to take a good look at Venus." "But the collision will be extremely violent. The two stars are about the same size, and they are approaching each other from opposite directions. Once they collide, the consequences will be unimaginable." "Isn't it the same as two trains colliding?" Ben-Zov said nonchalantly. "Two trains collided, how lightly you said it!" said the captain, "You must know that the speed of these two trains is a thousand times faster than the speed of the express train. As a result of the collision of two planets, one of them will definitely be killed." Crush it, or both. It's hard to say if your little Montmartre dirtbag survives." This sentence hit Ben Yizoff's heart.He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, but finally restrained himself and did not growl for the words "little soil bag".After a while he said: "Captain, I'm at your beck and call...you order!...Is there any way to prevent this collision..." "There's nothing you can do. Get the hell out of here, you idiot." Ben Yizoff, who was so embarrassed, quietly stepped aside without saying a word. Over the next few days, the two planets got closer and closer.The Earth, in its new orbit, will soon block the way of Venus.At the same time, the Earth is getting closer and closer to Mercury.This planet is usually difficult to see with the naked eye, and only when it appears in the east or west at the maximum declination away from the sun can its beautiful figure be revealed.Its roundness is the same as that of the moon, and it can reflect sunlight. The light and heat transmitted by the sun to its surface are equivalent to seven times that of the earth. Due to the large inclination of its rotation axis, there is no distinction between tropical and frigid zones on Mercury. There is a wide equatorial belt, and mountains as high as nineteen kilometers, which led the ancients to call it "the shining celestial body," and to observe it with great interest. But the present danger is not from Mercury, but from Venus.As of January 18, Venus and Earth will be only four million kilometers apart.Objects on Earth cast strong shadows due to the strong light reflected from the gold.It takes 23 hours and 21 minutes for Venus to rotate once on its axis, which means that the length of its days and nights does not vary.Now you can see the clouds floating above Venus and the shadow cast by a dark cloud on the surface of Venus.In addition, seven spots on the surface of Venus have become discernible, which, as Bianchini said, are seas connected to each other.Not only that, but the dazzling star was now clearly visible even in daylight.However, the captain's mood at this time was not as elegant as General Napoleon's back then.When Napoleon saw this star at noon one day during the Directory, he had a whim and called it "his star". On January 20th, these two planets, which had been traveling according to certain rules in space, got closer again. "My colleagues and friends in Africa and France, and all the inhabitants of the old and new continents must be in a panic right now," said the captain to himself, "I think the newspapers everywhere must be full of pessimistic articles. , the church was full of praying crowds. They must think the end of the world has come. God! I am not delusional, Venus has never been so close to the earth. And yet, in this critical time, not a single ship has arrived This small island came to take us back, which is really strange. But then again, how can the Governor and the Secretary of the Army have time to take care of us? In two days, the earth will be controlled into countless fragments and left in space." The collision never happened. On the contrary, from this day on, the earth and Venus will move away from each other.Fortunately, their orbits were not perfectly matched, and a terrible collision was finally avoided. When the captain told Ben Yizoff the good news, the panicked Ben Yizoff felt relieved. On January 25, the distance between the two planets is already quite far, and there is no need to worry about it anymore. "Anyway," said the captain, "this encounter between Venus and the Earth has made me understand one thing: Venus has no moon." However, astronomers such as Dominique, Cassini, Short, Montagne Limoge, Mount Baron, etc. all solemnly believed that Venus has a satellite. "However, it seems that I will never be able to reveal the mystery of all these changes in the sky." "Captain," Ben-Zoff said. "What's the matter!" "Isn't there a building with a big bulge on the roof next to the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris?" "You mean the observatory?" "By the way, shouldn't these strange things be answered by the gentlemen there?" "Exactly." "Then let them explain, we'll take it easy." "Take it easy? Do you understand the meaning of this sentence?" "Understood, I am a soldier." "Then tell me." "When you can't do anything about something, you're left to your fate. We're in that situation right now." Servadac was noncommittal to his answer.The mystery was beyond his reach.It seemed he had decided, at least for the time being, not to bother too much about it. Besides, a major event soon occurred which took his mind off those questions any longer. On January 27, at about nine o'clock in the morning, Ben-Zov came into his room quietly and said to him: "Captain." "What's up?" "Here comes a boat." "This ghost, such a big matter, came to report to me so calmly!" "Hell, didn't we say we should take everything in stride?"