Nearly a hundred million miles
of their journey had lain through this zone in which hundreds and
possibly thousands of tiny planets revolve in vast orbits round the Sun.
Then had come a world less void of over three hundred million miles,
through which they voyaged alone, surrounded by the ever-constant
splendours of the heavens, and visited only now and then by one of those
Spectres of Space, which we call comets.
Astern the disc of the Sun steadily diminished and ahead the grey-blue
shape of Jupiter, the Giant of the Solar System, had grown larger and
larger until now they could see it as it had never been seen before--a
gigantic three-quarter moon filling up the whole heavens in front of
them almost from zenith to nadir. Three of its satellites, Europa,
Ganymede, and Calisto, were distinctly visible even to the naked eye,
and Europa and Ganymede, happened to be in such a position in regard to
the _Astronef_ that her crew could see not only the bright sides turned
towards the Sun, but also the black shadow-spots which they cast on the
cloud-veiled face of the huge planet. Calisto was above the horizon
hanging like a tiny flicker of yellowish-red light above the rounded
edge of Jupiter, and Io was invisible behind the planet.
"Five hundred million miles!" said Zaidie, with a little shiver; "that
seems an awful long way from home--I mean America--doesn't it? I often
wonder what they are thinking about us on the dear old Earth.
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