Off on a Comet
Journey through the world of sun (even Hector Servadacs journey through the solar world, Hector Servadacs space travel, or travel through the solar system ) is a novel by the French writer Jules Verne. The novel was first published in 1877 by the publisher Pierre -Jules Hetzel in two volumes under the French title Hector Servadac. Volume I appeared on July 19, 1877, and Volume II on 7 November 1877. The first German -language edition published in 1878 under the title journey through the solar world.
Action
The captain in the French army in Algeria Hector Servadac odds with the Russian Count Vasily Timascheff, the anchor with his schooner Dobryna off the coast, for the favor of a young widow. You arrange to have a duel for the next morning. Both are located at the end of a small cape between Tenez and Mostaganem, about 3 km from the mouth of Cheliff. Servadac whiling away the wait time writing a rondeau to the beloved and talks with his aide Ben- Zouf. Ben- Zouf, whose real name Laurent, comes from Paris from Montmartre.
In the evening Servadac noticed a strange reddish light through the haze of the atmosphere during a walk along the coast. While he continues to work on his poem later, he and Ben- Zouf be thrown by a tremendous force to the ground. After that, the horizon has changed, gigantic waves pile up and an unusual luster can be seen in the sky. The moon seems to have multiplied in size. Servadac and Ben- Zouf discover that the sun suddenly rises from the West, the Cheliff is gone, the gravity of the earth has decreased and the length of a day has been reduced to six hours. Algeria now seems to be at the equator because the sun is almost vertical at noon.
You notice that they are alone on an island, which they call Gourbi. The air pressure has decreased markedly. The Earth's axis no longer points to the North Star, but on the Vega in the constellation Lyra. Within two weeks, the temperature increases rapidly. The earth seems to approach the sun. They move direction of Venus and Mercury. They fear a collision of Earth with Venus, but the distance to Venus takes later again. Ben- Zouf sights a ship that turns out to be the Dobryna. Count Timascheff and the crew also do not know what disaster really happened.
The Count and Servadac plan to sail through the Mediterranean to find out what happened. In addition to the island Gourbi they first find no other country. The uniformly flat seabed consists of a golden metal dust. You can find a rock in the sea on which only is the grave of St. Louis. They meet after a 70 to 100 meters high, endless cliff, which they drive along several days. A part of the British garrison of Gibraltar has also withstood the disaster. However, the soldiers did not want to give up their base.
In the sea drives a case of a telescope made of leather in which they find a message. The sender writes of a Gallia and describes their path through the solar system. Meanwhile, they have left the orbit of Mars behind and approach the Jupiter and Saturn. Also, the Uranus is now visible to the naked eye. The air temperature is steadily decreasing. They do not know how far the aphelion of its orbit away from the sun. From the French coast, there is nothing left. Where previously Corsica was they found only the small island of Magdalena, on which the eight -year-old Nina is a goat.
When returning to Gourbi they find there next to Ben- Zouf some Spaniards and a Jewish merchant, who comes from Germany. From Cologne Isaac Hakhabut has set out with his tartane Hansa to drive in the Mediterranean trade. On the way he had taken up the Spanish. Meanwhile, the temperature, due to the further increase in distance from the sun, still further. You decide to emigrate to an island where they have an active volcano sighted. You intend to use the volcano as a heat source. You settle down with their colony in a cave on the volcanic island. Gallia has now get the moon Nerina. Presumably, the object is a captured asteroid.
The Dobryna and the Hansa freeze before a volcanic island in the ice. With a message that is brought by a carrier pigeon to the volcanic island, the travelers learn that the mysterious sender is located on the Balearic island of Formentera and threatens to starve. With a converted to a sailing dinghy slide they reach the sender who turns out to be a former physics teacher Palmyrin rosette of Servadac.
This explained to them that they are on a comet that has taken a few underground rock at its collision with the Earth. Rosette had observed before the disaster the comet for several nights and calculates that its path crosses the ecliptic and the comet will collide with the Earth. The orbit of Gallia around the Sun is an ellipse that brings the comet again after two years to an encounter with the Earth. Rosette calculated with the help of a scale the dimensions and mass of Gallia, his calculations, however, have to correct later, as Hakhabut has turned on him a rigged scales. In his view there Gallia to 70% of tellurium and 30 % of gold.
Meanwhile happened Gallia Jupiter. The travelers see the four Galilean moons Europa, Io, Ganymede and Callisto with the naked eye. Then they pass the orbit of Saturn. Rosette observed eight of Saturn's moons and Saturn's rings. The two ships will be uplifted by the pack ice and on. The volcano, meanwhile, a little by its activity, the lava seems to have found a different outlet from the interior of the comet.
The colony has to move deeper into the volcano crater, as the temperature decreases more and more in the previous property. As Gallia penetrates the interior of the solar system deep again, want Servadac and Ben- Zouf hoist on a remnant of Ceuta the flag of France, but found there already a delegation of British soldiers of Gibraltar. They shall inform the British about the fact that they are on a comet. They suggest you emigrate to them to prepare jointly to the calculated Rosetta renewed collision of Gallia with the earth. The British, however reject this. Gallia loses again the moon Nerina, who passed away for unknown reasons in the depths of space.
The Russian lieutenant Prokop has the idea that the colonists can leave the surface of Gallia with a hot air balloon before it bounces on the ground. The sea is heating up takes you to melt the towering ice floes around the island. The two ships plunge down with ice and being destroyed. An explosion rips off part of Gallia, on which Gibraltar, Ceuta and the British soldiers are. Before the collision of Gallia with the earth, the colonists start with the manufactured out of the sails of Dobryna balloon and find themselves after the collision near the city of Mostaganem again. On Earth, no one has noticed the comet. The former colonists are welcomed surprise, no one believes them her story of the journey through the solar world.
Films
- Valley of the Dragons (1961 ) is a Columbia Pictures film directed by Edward Bernds
- Na Komete (On the Comet ) ( 1970), by the Czech director Karel Zeman