Tintin and the Shooting Star

Author : Hergé

Language : English

One night Tintin is out walking with his dog Snowy. The evening is particularly hot. Tintin then notices an extra star in the Great Bear. When he reaches home, he calls the Observatory. They say that they have the phenomenon under observation and hang up.

Tintin wonders why it is so hot, and opens the window. He sees that the star is getting bigger every minute. He walks to the Observatory, and, after some trouble, gets inside. He meets a man called Philippulus who proclaims himself to be a prophet and tells him that "It is a Judgement! Woe!" Puzzled, Tintin proceeds to the main room with the giant telescope. There he meets the director of the observatory, Professor Decimus Phostle, who explains that the extra star is a vast ball of fire making it way towards Earth, which will cause the end of the world.

In the event, however, the shooting star passes by the Earth, though a piece of it, a meteorite, lands in the arctic ocean, causing an earthquake that lasts a mere few seconds.

After an analysis of a spectroscopic photo of the meteor, Phostle deduces that it is composed of an entirely new metal. He names this metal "Phostlite", but is dismayed to discover that the meteor has landed in the sea and therefore, presumably, is lost. Tintin, however, realises that the meteor could be protruding above the surface of the water, and the Professor is persuaded to organise an expedition led by himself to find the metal and to retrieve a sample of it for further research. The expedition consists of leading scientists, as well as Tintin, Snowy and the alcoholic Captain Haddock (ironically serving as president of the Society for Sober Sailors), aboard the trawler Aurora.

However, unknown to the Aurora expedition, another team has already set out, backed by a financier from São Rico by the name of Bohlwinkel, aboard the polar expedition ship Peary. The expedition becomes a race to be the first to land on the meteor. Bohlwinkel attempts to sabotage the Aurora expedition by getting a henchman to plant a stick of dynamite on the ship on the eve of departure, but it is found and thrown overboard. While crossing the North Sea the Aurora is almost rammed into by another of Bohlwinkel's ships, but Haddock manages to steer his ship out of the way.

Further setbacks occur at the Icelandic port of Akureyri, when Captain Haddock is informed that there is no fuel available. Despondent, he and Tintin have a drink in a local bar, where the Captain bumps into an old friend, Captain Chester. Chester reveals that there is plenty of fuel, and that the Golden Oil Company (which has a fuel monopoly) is owned by Bohlwinkel. The three of them devise a plan to run a hose from Chester's ship, Sirius, to the Aurora and thus trick Golden Oil into providing them the fuel they need. By connecting a hose from the Sirius fuel tank to the Aurora fuel tanks

Coming close to catching the Peary, the Aurora then receives an indistinct distress call from another ship and has to turn round in order to help. Inquiries by Tintin then lead him to realise that the distress signal is a fake designed to further delay them. Resuming the journey, they then intercept a cable announcing that the Peary expedition has reached the meteorite but not actually claimed it yet. Tintin uses the ship's seaplane to parachute on to the meteor and plant the expedition flag, beating the crew of the Peary by seconds. The Aurora expedition has won the race.

Tintin makes camp while the ship's over-exerted engines are repaired. The next day he discovers the remarkable properties of Phostlite: his apple core instantly grows into an enormous tree full of oversized apples, and a maggot turns into a massive butterfly. Tintin is menaced by a giant spider and huge, exploding mushrooms before rescue arrives. Then a sudden seaquake shakes the meteor to its core; the young reporter and Snowy retrieve a rock sample and jump to safety as the rock sinks into the sea.

The triumphant expedition's return is reported on the radio, along with the news that law enforcement agencies are closing on Bohlwinkel. As they prepare to dock, the Captain announces that they are short on one vital commodity — whisky. Courtesy: wikipedia.org

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