"Agreed; but we must do it quickly."
"And what is the second reason?" asked Michel.
"The second reason is that we must not allow the exterior cold, which is excessive, to penetrate into our projectile lest we should be frozen alive."
"Still the sun—"
"The sun warms our projectile because it absorbs its rays, but it does not warm the void we are in now. When there is no air there is no more heat than there is diffused light, and where the sun's rays do not reach directly it is both dark and cold. The temperature outside is only that produced by the radiation of the stars—that is to say, the same as the temperature of the terrestrial globe would be if one day the sun were to be extinguished."
"No fear of that," answered Nicholl.
"Who knows?" said Michel Ardan. "And even supposing that the sun be not extinguished, it might happen that the earth will move farther away from it."
"Good!" said Nicholl; "that's one of Michel's ideas!"
"Well," resumed Michel, "it is well known that in 1861 the earth went through the tail of a comet. Now suppose there was a comet with a power of attraction greater than that of the sun, the terrestrial globe might make a curve towards the wandering star, and the earth would become its satellite, and would be dragged away to such a distance that the rays of the sun would have no action on its surface."
"That might happen certainly," answered Barbicane, "but the consequences would not be so redoubtable as you would suppose."