On A Comet

The Stars Are Also Fire, 17.

A small comet is:

"...a dark, rough lump against the galaxy's glory." (p. 235)

This single phrase presents both another description of the galaxy and another object seen against the galaxy.

Although comparatively small, this comet comprises billions of tonnes of rocks, frozen gas and ice. On the pitted surface, engineers, using robotically constructed buildings and machines, divert the comet's orbit despite quake damage to their base. Cometary ice will become Lunar rivers, lakes and interior sea.

Several bodies colliding between Mars and Jupiter generated the Asteroid Belt.

History continues:

Anson Guthrie has been downloaded, then died;

Fireball will send a probe to Alpha Centauri;

engineers at the comet detect a nickel-iron asteroid 30 a.u.'s from Sol.