Annihilation of the solar system

The biting cold wind of the winter night penetrated into the office through the cracks in the doors and windows, wrapping everyone in a chill. Wei Xu salivated on his high-power mints and sat slumped in the office chair with his body tilted.

Above. He inserted one hand into the hand warmer bag in his arms, and the mouse in the other hand made an irregular "click-click" sound.

He kept refreshing the window of the EDA astronomical observation data platform almost mechanically. A set of photos of Europa would be refreshed in the window every few minutes. On the screen at this time, Europa was mostly blocked by shadows.

Position, leaving only an observation range shaped like a clipped fingernail.

During the dozen or so hours when Europa was covered from a small part to only a small part left to be observed, the capillary-like tissues that Wei Xu discovered were indeed as he had guessed. They were rapidly growing on the moon.

It spreads under the ice cap of Moon. Some of the narrowly spaced pipe sections are almost covered with it.

Suddenly, he sat up straight from the half-lying position where he had almost slid to the bottom of the table. The creaking sound of the chair attracted the attention of other colleagues. Xia Lan yawned and walked over, rubbing her eyes:

"Did you discover anything new?"

Wei Xu's bloodshot eyes stared at the image on the screen,

"The latest infrared photos just sent back show that the temperature of those filaments suddenly rose, faster than before."

Xia Lan looked at the photo on the computer screen covered with orange-red tubes and filaments.

"Well, the temperature of the filaments you found before was still lower than the temperature of the main tube, but now it seems to be almost the same. Check the visible light photos to see if there is anything abnormal."

Wei Xu called up the photo in the visible light band. Compared with the photo taken before, except that it only had a small observation range, the difference was that it looked very blurry.

"Why is this photo not clear? Is it a problem with the space telescope?" Lin Tianyu also walked behind Wei Xu sleepily.

Wei Xu shook his head:

"No, I think it may be because the temperature of the tissues under the ice sheet has increased, causing part of the ice sheet to melt and producing water vapor, which is why the picture is blurry."

Everyone was no longer sleepy, and they were just looking at the photos that came in every few minutes in front of the computer. The range that could be seen in the photos was getting smaller and smaller, and the speed at which those capillary-like tissues were spreading was getting faster and smaller.

The faster it goes, the higher the temperature gets. The white haze in the visible light photo becomes more obvious.

The previous set of thermal imaging photos when the entire Europa was about to submerge into shadow showed that the temperature of the only remaining corner tube and the newly grown mesh was twice as high as a month ago. In the photos in the visible light band,

The originally clearly visible ravines on Europa's surface have been completely blocked by the rising fog.

"What should we do?" Lin Tianyu asked, everyone's face was full of anxiety.

Wei Xu raised his head and glanced at Xia Lan, who was filling water from the drinking fountain, but Liu Mengzhu, who happened to be walking over, blocked his view. He tilted his head and was about to speak when he was suddenly inspired by the scene in front of him.

"Senior sister!" Wei Xu shouted.

"What?" Xia Lan was about to come over with a glass of water.

"Don't move! Mengzhu, don't move either." Wei Xu said again.

Xia Lan felt strange. She looked at Wei Xu who was looking at him with his head tilted. Then, Wei Xu stretched out his crooked neck again, and his sight was blocked by Liu Mengzhu again. This happened several times, Xia Lan and others

Everyone understood what Wei Xu meant.

"You mean, let the satellites in orbit adjust their observation positions so that the field of view path avoids the asteroid belt?" Xia Lan said.

At this time, Shen Manying came to the office early with breakfast. Xia Lan and Wei Xu told their mentors the plan, and Shen Manying immediately contacted the Space Control Center.

After hanging up the phone, Shen Manling's expression did not relax:

"I just had a conversation with Commander Song of the Space Control Center. He said that your plan is fine in theory, but it is a bit troublesome in practice. The Gaoming and Webb are currently in the L2 Lagrange orbit. 'Neither of them can use their own power to change orbit to that altitude. At the beginning of their design, these two telescopes only considered the issue of orbit maintenance 1.5 million kilometers away. No more power equipment for orbit change was designed."

"Then what should we do?" Wei Xu was a little discouraged.

"Song Shi always said that there is a way. Use a spacecraft to take the two space telescopes to an orbit above the ecliptic plane of the solar system, and then bring them back to their previous position after completing the observations. But this plan When it comes to mission load scientists, ground-to-air launches, and spacecrafts, their space center can't decide and needs to ask the Academy of Sciences for instructions." Shen Manling looked at Xia Lan at the end of her words.

Xia Lan immediately understood what the teacher meant. She looked at the white fish belly that had just turned up on the horizon, grabbed the necessary information and hurriedly left the office.

She found her father, Xia Jigang, the dean of the Academy of Sciences, in the breakfast room of the luxurious villa. The woman's eyes were still full of scorn and disdain, but Xia Lan couldn't care less, so she told Xia Jigang about the situation. , Xia Jigang was proud of his contribution to astronomy and earth defense, and his attitude towards her also changed to a certain extent.

"I will report your plan to Eda immediately. It should be fine." Xia Jigang wiped his mouth and said.

"Dean Xia, please be quick. According to our calculations, due to the thickness of the asteroid belt and the orbital parameters of Jupiter, even if we go above the solar ecliptic plane, the observation window may still be less than a month. If we miss the window, we will be dead in a short time. It will be difficult to observe Europa anymore."

Xia Jigang nodded:

"Your information is complete and the reasons are sufficient. It will be approved soon."

"Wei Xu and I applied to be the mission payload scientists for this space observation and went to space together," Xia Lan said.

Xia Jigang said without even thinking:

"There are so many scientists at the Space Center who can serve as mission load experts, so don't go. Your team is too important to the Academy of Sciences now."

Xia Lan knew what her father was thinking. In addition to being a little concerned about her daughter, she was more worried that something might happen to the academy's ace research team.

"Wei Xu and I both have experience in space missions. We participated in the design and finalization of the Gaoming, and I also participated in the modification of the Weber. We are the most suitable candidates, why can't it be us?"

Xia Jigang was a little impatient:

"The other research work you are doing is too important to the Academy of Sciences and EDA, and you cannot take risks."

Xia Lan stared at her father's eyes that were already flashing with anger and argued fiercely:

"The most important task is to figure out what will happen to Europa next, which may be related to our defense deployment. If the defense plan fails because of the incorrect observation results this time, then I will have an accident now and 8 years later. Will it make any difference if we die in the invasion of alien civilization in the future? You should know that our chances of winning are pitifully small, and we are not allowed to make any mistakes!"

Xia Jigang looked at his daughter whose face was red and her eyes were bloodshot. The anger in her eyes gradually dissipated. What was left was only empty fear and confusion.

(I am a ruthless coding machine. I have no weekends, no days and nights, no parties, no drinking, no picking up girls, no illness, and I don’t even dare to take a shit for too long. It’s just for the tickets in your hands. Can you support me?

, just don’t raise it, the book has become fatter, the author has lost weight, I’m like this, how can you still bear it.)