Earth Era

Five hours have passed. It was nearly six o'clock in the afternoon, but the direction of the sun was always quiet. Neither satellites, observatories, nor radio telescopes have received any signals with logical characteristics from the direction of the sun.

Perhaps, as the person in charge of the observatory said, "Either that K2-level civilization does not exist, or they ignore us." And now, five hours later, because of the angle difference caused by the rotation of the earth, even if The signal was indeed transmitted from the direction of the sun, and the Xinghe radio telescope could not receive it.

Obviously, because it is built in a valley, the Xinghe radio telescope cannot rotate freely to aim in different directions. It can only follow the earth and scan a certain range of the celestial sphere along a fixed orbit.

However, it doesn't matter if the Galaxy radio telescope can no longer monitor the sun. At this moment, free-spinning radio telescopes built elsewhere on Earth are still chasing the shadow of the sun until it sets.

The highest intensity surveillance operation will last for three days. If there is still no information sent back after three days, the monitoring of the direction of the sun will not stop. There will still be at least two large radio telescopes in charge of this task.

"Then wait for three days." Zhao Huasheng said: "Maybe some people think that it is easier to change the current predicament by communicating with extraterrestrial civilizations than relying on our own strength to change the sun, but I don't think so. I think that if the sun is because If our own physical mechanism changes, we still have some chances. If there is a K2-level civilization, we have no chance. So... I hope that there will never be a reply from the direction of the sun.”

"In short, let's wait for these three days." The person in charge of the observatory said.

Zhao Huasheng stayed in the Xinghe Observatory with Li Wei, Meng Zhuo and others. After the Xinghe radio telescope could no longer observe the sun due to the earth's rotation, it could no longer observe the sun, and Xinghe Observatory re-entered the daily work rhythm.

This is the most sensitive ear built by human civilization. It can even listen to radiation emitted by distant galaxies seven billion light-years away. Since the Galaxy radio telescope was built, it has discovered at least more than 500 neutron stars and white dwarfs, and through gamma-ray monitoring, it has identified at least 300 new suspected black hole stars. There are many extremely important discoveries in close binary stars, Cepheid variable stars, supernova explosions, double neutron star or white dwarf star systems, and compact stars-the main sequence star model.

There are huge amounts of radiation and signals in the universe all the time. The role of the Xinghe radio telescope is to monitor these signals, eliminate useless interference, and screen out valuable signals for astronomical research.

Zhao Huasheng is also an astronomer. Although the research direction is different from those of the Galaxy Observatory, this does not prevent Zhao Huasheng from participating. Zhao Huasheng stayed at the Xinghe Observatory for three days until noon on the third day.

Seventy-two hours have passed, and the direction of the sun is still silent, still silent. No receiving device in the world picked up even a suspected signal.

At this time, Zhao Huasheng received a notification from Wang Tang: "With the consent of the head of state, we have decided to restart the solar exploration program. There will be at least 30 probes and a manned spaceship leaving the earth for the sun."

"Very good." Zhao Huasheng said, "When will it launch?"

"Tomorrow the astronauts will depart from Earth."

"Okay, I'll go see them off too."

"Welcome." Wang Tang said.

After the communication was cut off, Zhao Huasheng said to Mengzhuo: "There is still some time before the rocket launch, let's go to the Vulcan solar telescope to take a look. Maybe we can find some clues left by Director Li Qi there."

"Okay." Mengzhuo agreed, and after an hour of preparations, five helicopters carried Zhao Huasheng and his party away from the Xinghe Observatory, and began to set off for the Vulcan Solar Telescope.

The Vulcan Solar Telescope is an optical telescope, so it must be built in a place with clean air to reduce the influence of the atmosphere on light. Only in this way can the observation accuracy be improved. In fact, the construction site of the Vulcan telescope is a mountain range with an altitude of more than 5,000 meters, and it is dry all year round with little rainfall.

Here is located at a low latitude, although the solar radiation has been greatly reduced, the temperature of the plain here is still above zero. But the mountains are different. At an altitude of more than 5,000 meters, the temperature has dropped to about minus 30 degrees. In such severe cold, Zhao Huasheng's helicopter came to the open space in front of the Vulcan telescope.

The person in charge of the Vulcan Telescope Base received Zhao Huasheng and his party. After taking Zhao Huasheng from the freezing outside to the base, he left alone, and another person accompanied Zhao Huasheng and others. This is a thin, dull middle-aged man wearing glasses, with a pen stuck in his coat pocket, he looks like an intellectual of the last century.

"That's right, our telescope is indeed built by director Li Qi." The middle-aged man said, "After the unfortunate death of director Li Qi, at least seven groups of people from the scientific research department have come here to check, all of them Nothing of value was found. Why, are you also from the scientific research department? Come here to check Director Li Qi's things?"

Zhao Huasheng nodded, "Yes, we hope to find some clues left by Director Li Qi here."

"No, none at all." The middle-aged man shook his head regretfully, "Director Li Qi also has authority over this telescope, but after the telescope is completed and put into use, in addition to receiving the observation data here , he never paid attention to this place again. How can there be anything left by Li Qi's director here?"

Zhao Huasheng asked: "Director Li Qi also has the authority to operate this telescope? So is it possible that this happens, that is, Li Qi directly uses his own authority to operate this telescope for certain observations without going through you? "

"Theoretically, this possibility exists." The skinny middle-aged man said, "However, the first seven groups of investigators from the Scientific Research Department have already investigated this matter, and they don't seem to have found anything."

"Yes, the personnel of the scientific research department have investigated this matter." Mengzhuo said, "The investigators did not find any traces left by Li Qi. There are two possibilities for this situation. First, Li Qi really didn't do anything. Second, Li Qi did the operation, but removed these traces perfectly. We don't know what kind of possibility it is. Because this information is of no value, I didn't report it to you. "

"Hmm." Zhao Huasheng nodded, thought for a while, then turned to Li Wei and asked, "Since it is an optical telescope, did anyone from your Institute of Optics participate in the construction of this telescope?"

"Participated." Li Wei said, "The investigators also investigated the construction drawings and technical parameters of the telescope, and found nothing weird."

"So..." Zhao Huasheng pondered again, and said to the thin middle-aged man, "Can we go and have a look at this telescope?"

"Of course." The middle-aged man said, "We can go there by car."

A group of people took a car to the huge factory building where the telescope was located.

Optical telescopes are different from radio telescopes in that they are not curved surfaces like pot lids, but a lens barrel structure in the traditional sense, but the volume is much larger. When it is to be used, the baffle above the factory building will be removed, and the light from a distance will enter its mirror surface.

Although it is also a mirror structure, it is different from other telescopes. Because other telescopes are mainly used to observe extremely distant celestial bodies, but it is used to observe the sun. The sun is too big and too close. If it is not dealt with, the sunlight gathered by the condenser mirror is enough to burn the steel plate. Therefore, there are multiple filter plates on the outside of this telescope, and the staff in the base can easily adjust the intensity of light entering the telescope according to observation needs.

There are many workers working here. On the huge screen in the factory building, Zhao Huasheng also saw the real-time image of the sun. It was a fiery big fireball with a dark red color. Even after a great extinction, it still looked full of shocking power.

Due to the outbreak of the solar crisis, the observation tasks of this telescope have suddenly increased a lot, and even the number of staff here is three or four times more than before.

Zhao Huasheng didn't speak, but just strolled around the busy researchers, looking at the layout here, looking at the data sent back, and occasionally looking at the huge telescope mirror body.

After a while, Zhao Huasheng asked thoughtfully: "How accurate is this telescope's resolution of the sun's rays?"

"Resolution accuracy? You mean?" the thin middle-aged man asked with some doubts.

"Light intensity. To use an analogy," Zhao Huasheng said, "if its accuracy is adjusted to the highest, is it possible for it to find a specific area of ​​the sun-this area may be very small, let's say ten square kilometers, it Can you detect the change in light intensity in these ten square kilometers?"

"Of course it can be found." The thin middle-aged man said, "This telescope is very powerful, and it is one of the most advanced ground-based telescopes built by us humans."

"What kind of accuracy can be achieved? Can a luminosity change of one millionth be detected?" Zhao Huasheng asked immediately.

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It’s a new week again, please ask for a recommendation ticket~ Today will be three more~