le in our latitudes. Its distance is
275,000 radii of the terrestrial orbit, _i.e._, 275,000 times 149
million kilometers, which gives 41 trillions, or 41,000 milliards of
kilometers (= 25-1/2 trillion miles). [A milliard = 1,000 millions, the
French billion. A trillion = 1,000 milliards, or a million millions, the
English billion. The _French_ nomenclature has been retained by the
translator.] At a speed of 300,000 kilometers (186,000 miles) per second
the light takes four years to come from thence. It is a fine double
star.

The next nearest star after this is a little orb invisible to the
unaided eye. It has no name, and stands as No. 21,185 in the Catalogue
of Lalande. It almost attains the seventh magnitude (6.8). Its distance
is 64 trillion kilometers (39-1/2 trillion miles).

The third of which the distance has been measured is the small star in
Cygnus, already referred to in Chapter II, in describing the
Constellations. Its distance is 69 trillion kilometers (42-1/2 trillion
miles). This, too, is a double star. The light takes seven years to
reach us.

As we have seen, the fine stars Sirius, Procyon, Aldebaran, Altair,
Vega, and Capella are more remote.

Our solar system is thus very isolated in the vastness of Infinitude.
The latest known planet of our system, Neptune, performs its revolutions
in space at 4 milliards, 470 million kilometers (2,771,400,000 miles)
from our Sun. Even this is a respectable distance! But beyond this
world, an immense gulf, almost a void abyss, extends to the nearest
star, [alpha] of the Centaur. Between Neptune and Centauris there is no
star to cheer the black and cold solitude of the immense vacuum. One or
two unknown planets, some wandering comets, and swarms of meteors,
doubtless traverse those unknown spaces, but all invisible to us.

Later on we will discuss the methods that have been employed in
measuring these distances. Let us now continue our description.

* * * * *

Now that we have some notion of the distance of the stars we must
approach them with the telescope, and compare them one with another.

Let us, for example, get close to Sirius: in this star we admire a sun
that is several times heavier than our own, and of much greater mass,
accompanied by a second sun that revolves round it in fifty years. Its
light is exceedingly white, and it notably burns with hydrogen flames,
like Vega and Altair.

Now let us approach Arcturus, Ca