Other editions of book Off on a Comet! a Journey through Planetary Space

The story starts with a comet that touches the Earth in its flight and collects a few small chunks of it. Some forty people of various nations and ages are condemned to a two-year-long journey on the comet. They form a mini-society and coping with the hostile environment of the comet (mostly the cold). The size of the 'comet' is about 2300 kilometers in diameter - far larger than any comet or asteroid that actually exists.

Among Jules Verne's works is this cautionary tale about a day when the Earth is nearly struck by a comet only to have a portion of Europe break off and be flung into space. A number of people, mostly on island outposts and sailing vessels, find themselves hurtling into the icy depths of space and the small piece of home on which they find themselves is rapidly cooling as it moves away from the sun. Through a stroke of luck the main characters locate a volcano and a huge cavern in its side that can provide them with the life-giving heat they need. But they soon discover a professor who, as it turns out, knew about the close encounter and is happy with the results. This two-part story follows the unwitting space farers as they journey both outbound, and then as they come back for an eventual collision with their home planet. The available texts for this story did not include any of the magnificent illustrations. That has been remedied and more than 100 of the original art piece have been restored.

“Nothing, sir, can induce me to surrender my claim.”“I am sorry, count, but in such a matter your views cannot modify mine.”“But allow me to point out that my seniority unquestionably gives me a prior right.”“Mere seniority, I assert, in an affair of this kind, cannot possibly entitle you to any priorclaim whatever.”“Then, captain, no alternative is left but for me to compel you to yield at the sword’spoint.”“As you please, count; but neither sword nor pistol can force me to forego mypretensions. Here is my card.”“And mine.”This rapid altercation was thus brought to an end by the formal interchange of the namesof the disputants. On one of the cards was inscribed:Captain Hector Servadac,Staff Officer, Mostaganem.On the other was the title:Count Wassili Timascheff,On board the Schooner “Dobryna.”It did not take long to arrange that seconds should be appointed, who would meet inMostaganem at two o’clock that day; and the captain and the count were on the point ofparting from each other, with a salute of punctilious courtesy, when Timascheff, as if struckby a sudden thought, said abruptly: “Perhaps it would be better, captain, not to allow thereal cause of this to transpire?”