Annihilation of the solar system

In the next few days, the "Chandra" X-ray space telescope in low-Earth orbit, the "Yangjian" optical space telescope in geostationary orbit, the "Webb" infrared space telescope in L2 Lagrangian orbit, and recently

The launched "Gaoming" visible light space telescope is focused on Europa.

Scientific research institutions around the world are trying to find out the mechanism by which organic life on Europa enters the transfer orbit from the photos taken by these space telescopes, so as to determine some of their basic information such as size and mass, so as to provide a basis for decision-making for planetary defense.

.This also includes Xia Lan’s team.

Wei Xu looked at the row of plate-like photos of Europa taken yesterday on the wall. Some of them were visible light photos like white jade, some were X-ray photos like cement cakes, and some were infrared photos like a palette.

Imaging photos.

In the visible light photos, you can vaguely see the faint black shadows like mountains scattered in the crisscross ravines of Europa. Those are the organic biological tissues that have broken through the thick ice cap of Europa. Compared with the "Huygens" four years ago,

The blurry images captured before the "No. 1" probe crashed. Their size has expanded a lot.

In the X-ray band imaging photos, the cement cake is evenly dotted with needle-like white spots. That is evidence that the alien probe called "Boomerang" is operating under the ice cap of Europa. If it is

Combining the photos from the past few days, we can see that those white spots are still very active. They are transforming the native life in the ocean under Europa's ice cap.

What Wei Xu was most interested in was the infrared imaging photo that looked like a paint disk.

"Old Wei, did you find anything?" Lin Tianyu passed by him carrying hot water.

Wei Xu shook his head:

"Their biological channels connecting the egg sac structures seem to have become denser."

"Yes, we have also discovered it. And the temperature has increased slightly. But these are in line with our observations some time ago." Lin Tianyu replied.

"But this doesn't explain how the organic creatures on Europa can escape Europa's gravity and enter the orbit of Jupiter." Wu Fan said at the side.

Wei Xu carefully stared at the cobweb-like connecting pipes covered under the ice sheet in the photo, which appeared bright yellow under the computer rendering. Suddenly, he seemed to have discovered something, and hurriedly turned around and took a pen from his desk. Then

Back to the photo, use the tip of the pen to hold a thicker connecting pipe:

"Look here."

Lin Tianyu and Wu Fan both moved closer to look at the position pointed by Wei Xu's pen tip. He was not referring to the bright red pipe, but the area immediately adjacent to the pipe.

"There is a layer of darker radiation source next to this pipe." Wu Fan held his eyes and looked at the position pointed by Wei Xu.

"Could it be a heat source caused by heat escape from the pipeline? Or is it an error caused by imaging quality?" Lin Tianyu said.

Wei Xu shook his head:

"No, I have compared the thermal images of Titan's transportation pipelines. The surrounding areas of the pipelines are very smooth. Moreover, the temperatures on those two satellites are very low. It is unreasonable to dissipate heat like this."

He pointed to some other channels.

"You see, they have this kind of situation around their pipes, and I compared it with previous thermal imaging photos. It only appeared recently, but it didn't happen before. I guess this should be a tissue that has grown recently."

"In other words, the pipe structures on Europa may be different from those on Titan?" Lin Tianyu said.

Wei Xu put down his pen, took a few steps back and looked at the photo:

"Perhaps they are not conduits for transporting spores at all, but may have other functions. I think this should be related to how they transport organic organisms to the transfer orbit. But the specific situation needs to continue to be observed."

At this moment, Xia Lan hurried into the office with Shen Manling holding a stack of photos in her hands.

"Come and see this! The photo of Europa that was sent back half an hour ago."

Xia Lan covered the photos just now with several photos in her hand. Those photos were also observation photos of Europa's three wavebands. But those photos all had the same feature. In their lower parts, Irregular shadows cover one corner.

"Hey, one corner of these photos is blocked?" Wu Fan asked.

"We have checked with the Space Control Center and it is not a problem with the space telescope. It looks like something is blocking our observation path," Xia Lan replied.

At this time, Shen Manling was looking up information on the computer and writing on the paper. Wei Xu walked to the latest infrared photo of Europa, pointed at a pipe with the tip of his pen and said:

"You see, the radiation range next to these pipes in today's photo is larger and more obvious than yesterday's. They should be some kind of capillary-like tissue, and all the pipes are growing. If this continues, it won't take long They can be completely connected into a sheet and completely cover Europa's ice cap."

Since Xia Lan was not here just now, she didn't understand what Wei Xu meant. Lin Tianyu explained Wei Xu's guess to her.

"Wei Xu, do you think this has something to do with them launching creatures into transfer orbits?" Xia Lan asked after listening.

"It's hard to say now. More follow-up observation data are needed for analysis." Wei Xu replied.

At this time, Shen Manling, who had been looking up information and calculations in front of the computer, stood up:

"I just checked the past observation data. According to the current orbital positions of Jupiter and Europa, the asteroid belt should be blocking the path of our observation field."

"Ah?" Wei Xu and other students all exclaimed.

What they marveled at was not the asteroid belt that the teacher said is located on the ecliptic plane of the solar system, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, and contains millions of asteroids and countless interstellar dust materials.

Rather, they all know that if the inclination of Jupiter's orbit periodically enters the asteroid belt along the observation field path, then they will not be able to observe Europa for a long time. And those photos The shadow above is a sign that Jupiter is beginning to enter the shadow of the asteroid belt.

"We have just discovered that the observation of Europa will be stopped..." Wu Fan's voice was a little disappointed.

"Hurry up and ask the Space Control Center to focus the space telescope on Europa and see if we can make any further discoveries before it is completely blocked by the asteroid belt!" Wei Xu shouted.

Shen Manling immediately notified the Space Control Center and told them Wei Xu's idea. The Space Control Center did not raise any objection, because all the space telescopes are now staring at Europa and Titan. Now on Titan The situation is clearer, and spending a few hours staring at Europa is not a big problem.