The shock of their meeting has transformed their motion into light and heat.

They have united to form a single sun and a nebula, which will some day condense into a system of planets like ours.

To-night the astronomers on Earth will discover a new star--a variable star as they'll call it--for it will grow dimmer as it moves away from our system.

It has often happened before." Then they turned back to the conning-tower.
The needle had swung to its old position.

The new star, henceforth to be known in the annals of astronomy as Lilla-Zaidie, had already set for them to the right of the _Astronef_ and risen on the left, and, at a distance of more than nine hundred million miles from the Earth, the corner was turned, and the homeward voyage began..