Chapter 33 Chapter 9: Jupiter, the Master of Capturing Comets

Indeed, the research carried out by Palmier Rosset is entirely a kind of "science for science's sake" research.He had already figured out the ephemeris, orbit and revolution period of Comet Galia.Now Galia's mass, density, gravity, and metals are calculated.But these questions are not of much interest to others.Their main concern was when Gallia would return to the vicinity of Earth. Let the professor go on with his purely scientific research. The next day was August 1st, which was April 63rd in the Gallian calendar, in the words of Mr. Palmier Rosset.This month, the comet will travel 66 million kilometers and be 788 million kilometers away from the sun.It also has to travel 364 million kilometers to reach its aphelion on January 15.After that, it embarked on a return journey, gradually approaching the sun.

The incomparably beautiful space that Gallia is about to reach has never been observed carefully at such a close distance. Professor Rosset was quite right in keeping his telescope under his watch.No other astronomer has ever seen such a beautiful world.How beautiful the Galia night sky is.Not a breath of wind, not a cloud.All the stars in the sky are displayed in front of your eyes, allowing you to observe freely. Gallia is now headed toward the activity zone of the solar system's largest planet, Jupiter.After seven months of orbiting since the comet collided with Earth, beautiful Jupiter is finally within sight.As of August 1, Gallia will be only 240,400,000 kilometers away from Jupiter.Before October 15, this distance will be further reduced.

Is there any danger in orbiting close to Jupiter?Given Jupiter's mass, wouldn't its gravity have a catastrophic effect on Galia?It is true that Professor Rosset has taken into account the influence of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars on the comet when calculating the revolution period of the comet, but will there be any errors in the calculation of this aspect?Could his comet be moving much slower than he thought?Will Jupiter, the comet-hunting master... Deputy Prokop believed that if Professor Rosset's calculations were wrong, Gallia would probably encounter the following dangers: 1) Attracted by Jupiter, smashed into pieces on Jupiter;

2) Be captured by Jupiter and become a satellite of Jupiter, or a satellite of its satellite; 3) Affected by Jupiter's gravitational force and leaving its own orbit, it will never return to the ecliptic area; 4) The speed is slowed down by the influence of Jupiter, so that it cannot meet the earth in the ecliptic area on time. As long as one of the above four situations occurs, the Galians will never be able to return to their hometown - the earth. It should be reported that of these four dangers Palmillian Roset feared only one: Gallia becoming a satellite of Jupiter or a satellite of one of its satellites.Because in this way, his ideal of exploration would be impossible to realize.But if Gallia does not go to meet the earth, but continues to travel to the distant space of the solar system, or leaves the solar system to travel in the Milky Way, for him, that is a very satisfactory thing.Others miss their relatives and friends on earth day and night, and they are very anxious, eager to go back. This kind of feeling is understandable.But Rosette had no family.He also has no friends, because he has never had time to fall in love, have boys and girls, and have no time to make friends widely.What's more, for a violent person like him, how easy is it to start a family and make a group of friends?Therefore, since he had the good fortune to come to this planet and travel with it in space, he would rather sacrifice everything than leave it.

Another month passed like this. On September 1, Gallia was only 152 million kilometers away from Jupiter—the exact distance between the Earth and the sun.By September 15, this distance had been reduced to 104 million kilometers.Big.Jupiter, as seen in the sky, has grown larger, and Gallia seems to be being drawn away by its strong gravity. Jupiter is indeed a very large planet.For Gallia, this is undoubtedly a very terrible stumbling block.Since Newton, people have believed that the attraction between celestial bodies is proportional to their mass and inversely proportional to the square of their distance.Now, Jupiter's mass is much greater than that of Galia, and at the same time, when Galilea walks past it, its distance is relatively very small.

The diameter of this giant planet is 143,160 kilometers, which is equal to 11 times the diameter of the Earth.Its circumference is 449,760 kilometers.The volume is 1,414 times that of the earth, that is to say, the sum of 1,414 earths is only one Jupiter.Jupiter's mass is 338 times that of Earth.But its average density — extrapolated from its mass and volume — is less than a quarter that of Earth, and only a third denser than water.Based on this, some people think that the material on this giant planet may be in a liquid state, at least on the surface.But its overall quality is still a huge threat to Gallians.

In addition, Jupiter's revolution period is eleven years, ten months, seventeen days, eight hours and forty-two minutes.Its orbit is 4.856 billion kilometers long, and Jupiter moves 13 kilometers per second on this orbit.Jupiter rotates around its axis for nine hours and fifty-five minutes, and the time of a day and night is quite short.Every point on Jupiter's equatorial belt rotates 27 times faster than the Earth's equatorial belt, and the two poles are thus sunken by 3,980 kilometers.Jupiter's rotation axis is basically perpendicular to its orbital plane, and the sun always shines on the equator, so the length of day and night is equal, and the seasons do not change significantly.The light and heat that the surface of Jupiter receives from the sun is only one twenty-fifth of that of the earth, because the closest distance to the sun in its elliptical orbit is 752 million kilometers, and the farthest distance is 828 million kilometers .

Jupiter has four satellites, which sometimes meet and sometimes separate, and their soft light makes the night sky of Jupiter very beautiful. One of the satellites is at the same distance from Jupiter as the Moon is from Earth.There is also a satellite that is smaller than the moon.But the period of rotation of the four satellites around Jupiter is shorter than that of the moon: the first one is eighteen hours and twenty-eight minutes a day; the second is three days, thirteen hours and fourteen minutes; the third is seven days, three hours and forty minutes. Three points; the fourth is sixteen days, sixteen hours and thirty-two minutes.The farthest satellite is 1,860,520 kilometers away from Jupiter.

As we all know, the first time people measured the speed of light was by observing these satellites of Jupiter, which shows that people have already been very clear about their operation.In addition, the longitude of the earth can also be determined by these satellites. Prokop's second officer said one day: "We may compare Jupiter to a gigantic watch. Its satellites are the needles on the face, which keep time perfectly. But our watch has at most three needles, while it has four..." "Maybe it will have a fifth needle soon." Servadac said, thinking that Gallia might be captured by Jupiter and become one of its moons.

It is conceivable that the topic that Selvadac and others talk about all day long is this Jupiter that is getting bigger and bigger every day.They couldn't take their eyes off of it every day, and as soon as the conversation started, they talked about this behemoth of the solar system. One day, the conversation suddenly turned to the question of how many years these planets in the solar system have existed.Prokop felt that Flammarion's "On the Universe" had answered this question.He had a Russian translation of this book at hand, so he opened it and read a passage: "The most respected and oldest stars in the solar system should be the planets farthest from the sun. Neptune is 4.4 billion kilometers away from the sun. It first left the solar nebula hundreds of billions of years ago and began to exist. Uranus is 2.8 billion away from the sun It has existed in the solar system for tens of billions of years. The huge Jupiter is 760 million kilometers away from the sun, and it is seven billion years old. Mars has existed for one billion years, and its distance from the sun is 220 million Fourteen million kilometers. The earth is 148 million kilometers from the sun. It was born from the hot interior of the sun 100 million years ago. Venus has only existed for 50 million years so far. It is 104 million kilometers away from the sun. 10,000 kilometers, less water, only 10 million years, 56 million kilometers away from the sun. As for the moon, she is separated from the earth."

Hearing the above-mentioned new theory about the existence of celestial bodies, Captain Servadac couldn't help thinking: "In any case, Galia might as well be captured by Mercury than being captured by Jupiter. Because Mercury is a young master after all, and maybe it is easier to serve." In the second half of September, Galia continues to approach Jupiter.On September 1, the comet reached the orbit of Jupiter.The two planets will be at their closest distance in the middle of next month.A collision does not appear to occur because the respective orbital planes of Jupiter and the comet do not overlap, but remain at an angle: Jupiter's orbital plane is 1°19' from the ecliptic, while the comet's orbit is in the same position as the ecliptic. on the same plane. In the first half of September, for Professor Rosset who tirelessly observes the space without sleeping and eating, Jupiter is really an extremely brilliant and eye-catching star.Part of the sunlight shining on Jupiter is reflected on Comet Galia, making the objects on the surface of the comet appear brighter and the colors more attractive.Even Gallia's moon, Nerina, was dimmed in its nighttime glow when it was on the side of the sun.All day long in his room, Professor Palmier Suisette directed his telescope at that beautiful celestial body, Jupiter, which he seemed to want to unravel all its mysteries.Looking at this planet from the earth, the distance is at least 600 million kilometers, but now Rosset is only 52 million kilometers away from it. As for the sun, its apparent diameter is only 5'46". A few days before Gallia and Jupiter made their closest approach, Jupiter's moons were clearly visible to the naked eye.As we all know, on the earth, these satellites cannot be seen with the naked eye at all.Only a handful of people have ever seen them with very large telescopes.According to scientific historical records, Kepler's teacher Mostland was among them.About this Mostland, Wrangel said, he had gone hunting in Siberia, and, according to the director of the Breslau Observatory, he had worked as a tailor in Breslau.Even if these people had such powerful telescopes, if they could occupy such a unique place as the "Warmth Land", the competition among them would have been quite fierce.Now, every Galian can see these satellites clearly without a telescope.The first of these emits a strong white light, the second is pale blue, the third is as white as ice and snow, and the fourth is sometimes orange and sometimes reddish.Also, at such a close distance, Jupiter is not at all the faint, flickering look it used to be. When Professor Palmier Rosset was concentrating on observing Jupiter there, others were always worried about whether the comet would be captured by Jupiter.Days passed and there was no sign of this happening.Could it not be true that this colossus had no other influence on Galia than those already considered?It seems that the kind of power that the comet got at first can keep it from falling to Jupiter, but can this kind of power make it resist Jupiter's huge gravitational force for a long time, so that it can smoothly complete its cycle within two years? These are undoubtedly the things that Palmierian Rosette studied with great concentration in his room, but no one dares to ask him what the results of his research are. Once, when we were discussing this together, Captain Servadac said: "Humph! If Gallia's speed had gradually slowed down, thereby changing its revolution period, my former teacher would have been delighted. Therefore, the results of his research do not need to be asked. You can see it on your face." "I hope there is nothing wrong with his original calculations," said Count Ironmashev. "You think my teacher's calculations can be wrong?" said Servadac. Declare that we'll never go back to Earth, and I fully believe it." As of October 1, the distance between Galia and Jupiter was only 72 million kilometers, which is still 180 times greater than the maximum distance between the moon and the earth.Everyone knows that if the distance between Jupiter and Galia is reduced to that of the earth and the moon, the Jupiter seen by the Galians will be 1,200 times larger than the moon seen by the people on the earth, which is simply incomparably huge up. The bands on the surface of Jupiter that are parallel to the equator and have different hues can now be seen very clearly. This band is light gray in the southern and northern hemispheres, but it becomes bright and dark and extremely distinct near the poles, making the outer edge of Jupiter very bright.In the belts that traverse the entire surface of Jupiter, spots of different sizes and shapes can often be seen. Could these bands and spots be the result of changes in Jupiter's atmosphere?Jupiter's high-air currents, much like trade winds, move in the opposite direction of Jupiter's rotation.Might the appearance and movement of these bands and spots be the result of water vapor condensing into clouds and blowing through the air with the wind?These questions, like those of his colleagues who are still on the earth, cannot be answered accurately.He deeply regrets that once he returns to Earth in the future, he will not be able to explain this mystery to people. By the second week of October, people felt even more panic.Gallia was now at the most dangerous moment.But Earl Iron Mashov and Captain Servadak were relatively able to restrain their emotions.In the face of the catastrophe, they feel that their hearts are getting closer to each other.They exchanged their views day and night together.Sometimes, they feel that there is no hope of returning to the earth, and they can't help but start to imagine in their minds, wondering what kind of world is waiting for them in the interstellar space of the solar system or the Milky Way.They often feel that they have been brought into a new human society and accepted a broad theory that excludes the narrow conception that man can only live in a certain space, and believes that the entire universe is habitable. But in fact, whenever they wake up from their confusion, they are not discouraged. As long as they can still see the light spots of the earth in the starry night sky of Galia, they feel that there is always a glimmer of hope to return to the earth. of.Moreover, as Prokop's second officer has repeatedly emphasized, as long as Gallia can escape Jupiter's gravity this time, then there is no need to worry about the farther Saturn and the Mars that will be encountered when returning.Therefore, everyone is very anxious, hoping to get through this "ghost gate" as soon as possible. On October 15, if there are no accidents, the two planets will reach the closest distance: 52 million kilometers.At that time, either Jupiter will attract Galia, or Galia will continue to walk its long journey according to the originally determined ephemeris, the two must be one of them. Gallia walked past Jupiter smoothly. This point, people can see from Professor Rosset's angry face the next day.His calculations survived the test, but his hopes of exploring the universe were dashed.He should have been proud of his success, but he was the unluckiest man on Galia. Gallia is now continuing to orbit the sun according to its established orbit, and will soon begin to approach the earth.