"A good journey to you!" cried Michel Ardan, uttering a sigh of satisfaction. "Is not infinitude large enough to allow a poor little bullet to go about without fear? What was that pretentious globe which nearly knocked against us?"
"I know!" answered Barbicane.
"Of course! you know everything."
"It is a simple asteroid," said Barbicane; "but so large that the attraction of the earth has kept it in the state of a satellite."
"Is it possible!" exclaimed Michel Ardan. "Then the earth has two moons like Neptune?"
"Yes, my friend, two moons, though she is generally supposed to have but one. But this second moon is so small and her speed so great that the inhabitants of the earth cannot perceive her. It was by taking into account certain perturbations that a French astronomer, M. Petit, was able to determine the existence of this second satellite and calculate its elements. According to his observations, this asteroid accomplishes its revolution round the earth in three hours and twenty minutes only. That implies prodigious speed."
"Do all astronomers admit the existence of this satellite?" asked
Nicholl.
"No," answered Barbicane; "but if they had met it like we have they could not doubt any longer. By-the-bye, this asteroid, which would have much embarrassed us had it knocked against us, allows us to determine our position in space."
"How?" said Ardan.
"Because its distance is known, and where we met it we were exactly at 8,140 kilometres from the surface of the terrestrial globe."