"Appleton, Victor - Tom Swift Jr 21 - And the Asteroid Pirates" - читать интересную книгу автора (Appleton Victor)

Bud watched as Tom pressed a button to start taping the instrument
readings. The Sky Queen's equipment for the flight included a rubidium vapor
magnetometer, radiation counters, stacks of nuclear emulsions, automatically
operated cloud chambers, and various other atomic devices.
"That solar outburst must be having a real effect on the earth's ionosphere,"
Bud commented, scanning several of the instrument dials.
"Sure is," Tom agreed. "In fact, it throws the interplanetary magnetic fields
way out of kilter. Right now the earth is getting showered with all sorts of-"
The young inventor broke off abruptly, a startled expression on his face.
"What's wrong?" Bud asked.
"Up there at eleven o'clock!" Tom gasped, pointing out the cabin window.
"That burst of light!"
Bud's jaw dropped open in astonishment as he saw the phenomenon to
which Tom was referring. A small starburst in the darkness at first, the patch of
light was growing larger by the moment, and spreading out into a sizable glowing
fireball.
"Good grief! What is it?" Bud murmured in awe. "A meteor?"
Tom shook his head. "If it were falling into the earth's atmosphere, it would
show up as a streak of light." The young inventor hesitated.
EXPLOSION IN SPACE 5
"You know, Bud, if it didn't sound crazy, I'd say that was a nuclear explosion
out in space!"
"A nuclear explosion!" Bud stared at his friend. "You mean, like a hydrogen
bomb?"
"I don't know," Tom said with a baffled look. "But notice how the patch of light
is spreading. That's exactly what would happen to an atomic fireball in a vacuum
if it weren't held in by the counterpressure of the air."
Tom paused long enough to throw a glance at the bank of instruments, then
gave a whistle.
"Man alive! We're getting some kind of radiation already!" the young inventor
cried. "Look at those counters! They're going crazy! And so's the magnetometer!"
"Maybe the explosion, or whatever it is, was touched off by the solar
outburst," Bud suggested. "Could those particles from the sun have triggered a
reaction in a cloud of micrometeorites?"
"I doubt it," Tom replied. He snatched up the microphone and called the
wheel-shaped satellite space station which the Swifts had constructed 22,300
miles above the earth. "Sky Queen to Outpost. . . . Are you watching that burst of
light, Ken?"
The voice of Ken Horton, commander of the space outpost, reported:
"We sure are, Tom! The observatory crew up here is in a tailspin trying to
figure out this thing. Any idea what's causing it?"
6 THE ASTEROID PIRATES
"I was hoping you fellows could tell me," Tom replied. "Signing off now, but
give us a call the second you get any clues."
"Roger!"
Tom unbuckled his seat belt and stood up. "Take over, Bud," he said. "I'm
going topside to the astrodome for a better look."
"Right, skipper!"
As Tom disappeared up the steel ladder leading to the navigator's
astrodome, Bud banked the ship slightly to bring the mysterious patch of light into