Annihilation of the solar system

After several days of sailing, the "Gaoming" space telescope has appeared in front of them. Its appearance looks completely different from the "Yang Jian" and "Hubble" space telescopes in low-Earth orbit.

"Gaoming" looks more like the previously launched "James Webb" space telescope. It is also a dhow. Its hull is loaded with nuclear energy batteries, aerospace control systems and radio antennas. The diameter of the "Gaoming" is 9.5

The main circular mirror, made up of 21 hexagonal gold-plated mirrors, stands in the center of the ship like a golden sail.

The spacecraft shook slightly, and Lu Yuanzhou said:

"The robotic arm has captured the Gaoming and is preparing to go to a higher orbit."

Xia Lan and Wei Xu both tied themselves into fixed seats, preparing to accept the slight overload of the spacecraft's acceleration. Counting the previously captured "Webb" infrared telescope also operating in the L2 Lagrangian orbit, the spacecraft at this time

The two mechanical arms respectively grasped two golden "sailing boats" and flew in the direction perpendicular to the ecliptic plane of the solar system.

After more than ten days of flight, the spacecraft arrived at the predetermined location with two space telescopes that detect infrared and visible light bands respectively. The distance from the earth has reached 6.5 million kilometers. At this location, the earth seen through the portholes is only glass bombs.

It's the size of a pearl, but that touch of blue still makes her stand out among the stars.

Lu Yuanzhou carefully controlled the spacecraft to slow down.

"It has been successfully parked into orbit, and you can proceed to the spacecraft."

After Xia Lan gave the order, she and Wei Xu went to the back cabin to change the extravehicular spacesuits. In order to ensure the accuracy of the observations, they needed to conduct a comprehensive inspection of the two space telescopes. Especially the "Gaoming", they needed

It was confirmed that the previously observed fog on the surface of Europa was not caused by equipment.

The two sail-like space telescopes glow golden in the sun, making them particularly dazzling in the dark space. The gold plating on the mirrors and the gold foil wrapped in the "hulls" look like they have just been assembled in a clean room on the ground.

Finished the same, not a trace of dust.

After completing all the inspections, Xia Lan and Wei Xu returned to the spacecraft. Lu Yuanzhou piloted the spacecraft to temporarily launch the two telescopes into the universe at a certain distance. From the porthole, they looked like two rays of light in the deep space.

Dazzling gold.

"Let's get started!" Wei Xu floated to the control computer. He was responsible for operating the "Webb" telescope in the infrared band, while Xia Lan was behind him operating the "Gaoming" telescope in the visible light band.

The infrared imaging photos quickly appeared on the monitor in front of Wei Xu. Europa now looks like in the infrared band without the red, green and green colors of the previous color palette, replaced by the entire piece of orange-red.

.It looks like a blood moon that only appears during a lunar eclipse.

Wei Xu enlarged the photo. At this time, Europa in the infrared photo looked like a petri dish covered with red mycelium in a biological laboratory. The gaps between the tubes under the ice cap of the entire satellite had been completely filled.

"Look here!" Xia Lan said from behind.

Wei Xu turned around and saw that Europa on Xia Lan's screen was no longer as smooth as the jade plate before. The steaming mist made it look like a white pom-pom.

"Its ice shell is evaporating!" Xia Lan said.

"Well, the infrared imaging photos I have here show that organic organisms are emitting high-energy heat under the ice sheet. What on earth do they want to do?" Wei Xu looked questioning.

Xia Lan turned around and drifted to Wei Xu's display screen, staring at the blood moon for a while:

"You let the Webber shoot continuously for 10 seconds at a speed of 25 frames per second. Then make animations."

Wei Xu entered a line of instructions on the keyboard, and soon the animation Xia Lan needed appeared on the screen. Now Europa no longer looks like the cold and evil blood moon just now, it looks like the roof of a police car

The warning lights flashed at high frequency. The entire Europa quickly switched between orange-red and yellow-red.

"The speed of molecular motion is reflected in temperature changes on a macro scale. They... they are vibrating at high frequencies under the ice sheet!" Wei Xu's trembling voice was full of panic.

Xia Lan looked back at the visible light band photo on the screen behind her. The fluffy snowball still had no obvious change. She set the telescope to the automatic tracking mode of taking 10 photos per second. Then she returned to Wei Xu's screen:

"Did you spot its jet?"

Wei Xu recovered from the shock.

"What jet?"

"I've seen the orbital position, and Europa is about to enter Jupiter's maximum tidal force point. Under normal circumstances, its ice cap will be stretched and squeezed by Jupiter's strong tidal force, and where the ice cap is fragile, the ice cap below will be affected.

The pressurized liquid water sprays out tens of kilometers high, releasing internal stress." Xia Lan's tone was full of anxiety.

Wei Xu reacted. Not long ago, they were using spectral element analysis to determine the metabolic state of organic organisms under the ice cap of Europa, the most spectacular fountain in the solar system.

"Yes! This should be the time when Europa's fountain erupts. How does it...!"

Before he finished speaking, he was stunned by the flashing blood moon on the screen. The latest infrared photos continuously sent back showed that the ice ball satellite on the screen, which was about the same size as the moon, was moving at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Changes in shape.

It is stretched from one axis to an egg-like oval shape, then returns to a round shape, and then stretched from the other axis to an oval shape. In this way, the deformation cycle continues to accelerate. It is like there is a

An invisible giant hand is kneading a soft ball.

"Use your computer to build an orbital model of Europa. Add in the estimated value of high-frequency vibrations under the ice cap, the unreleased internal stress of Europa and the maximum tidal force of Jupiter, and calculate the relative relationship between Europa and Jupiter.

Luo Xi's rigid body extreme position!" Xia Lan's voice unconsciously raised the volume, which made Lu Yuanzhou float over.

Wei Xu seemed startled and trembled all over. He quickly switched the screen and started to build the simulation model according to Xia Lan's instructions. This process took a few minutes, and Xia Lan's hand unconsciously put on Wei Xu's shoulder. As

As the data continued to be entered, her hands tightened on Wei Xu's shoulders, but neither she nor Wei Xu noticed.

Wei Xu pressed the Enter key, and the calculation progress bar quickly filled up, and several lines of data that were difficult for ordinary people to understand were displayed on the screen. Wei Xu's eyes bulged, he cupped his hands in front of his open mouth and shook his head slightly. Xia Lan

The hand holding Wei Xu's shoulder trembled slightly.

"Xia Lan, what's wrong?" Lu Yuanzhou asked anxiously.

"The current extreme position of Europa's Roche rigid body is in its orbit!" Xia Lan's voice revealed a deep sense of fear and powerlessness.

"What will happen?" Lu Yuanzhou's saliva splashed out from the corner of his mouth.

Xia Lan and Wei Xu both slowly turned around at the same time and looked at the computer monitor behind them that displayed a relatively smooth optical dynamic image of Europa.

The snowball suddenly shook violently! An invisible shock wave was like the air wave set off when a grenade fell to the ground and exploded, quickly pushing away a layer of clouds and mist covering the surface of Europa.

The white jade-like Europa appears in the picture again.

But almost at the same time that Europa returned to its original appearance, like a walnut being slowly crushed by invisible pliers, a huge crack appeared from the North Pole! The dark red crack spread rapidly

When it reaches the middle of the disk, it splits into three or four smaller cracks.

Just when one frame of image was switched, these cracks were all over the surface of Europa, which was originally as complete as a jade plate. The next moment, the entire surface of Europa was instantly covered with cracks like tempered glass hit by a heavy hammer.

Texture.

Before the fountains and water mist splashing from the cracks could cover the nearly fragmented surface of Europa, the ice ball called "Europa" moved in the opposite direction along the largest crack in the middle, staggered! Split!

The deflection force of the rotational angular momentum, the suddenly released internal stress, and the tidal force of Jupiter caused the ice cap that was intact just a few seconds ago to disintegrate into several large ice blocks and countless debris.

.Those huge fragmented ice caps lost the support of the liquid water below and immediately shattered into countless fragments while spinning like a Frisbee hit by a shotgun shell.

And the liquid water, whose total volume exceeds twice that of the Earth's oceans, splashed into space and was immediately frozen into ice cubes of various sizes and shapes by the deep space at minus 260 degrees. They rubbed and collided with each other.

.The white mist created by the scattered ice crystals was like the hot air from the cage, and it quickly covered the entire screen.

Before it was completely obscured by the rapidly spreading water mist, they saw an irregular ellipsoid-shaped black rock moving through the diffuse white mist in the corner of the screen, which was the rocky core of Europa.

In space without a medium, the loud noise caused by the collapse of mountains and jade cannot be heard. But the three people in the spacecraft all had tinnitus that made them dizzy, as if spring thunder had exploded in their ears.

The cold sweat on Lu Yuanzhou's forehead flew like pearls in front of his eyes. His hands were tightly grasping the headrest of the seat. The hard headrest was almost made of five fingerprints by his red and trembling hands.

Xia Lan covered her mouth and nose with one hand, her face ashen. The other hand was operating the computer, constantly replaying the video of just a few seconds.

Wei Xu was trembling all over, his eyes were looking at somewhere in the spacecraft out of focus, and his hands were groping back and forth on his thighs and chest. He murmured:

"Cigarette... where is my cigarette..."

He forgot that he had quit smoking for almost five years, and he even forgot that he was in space at the moment, and it was impossible for anyone to bring cigarettes here.