Annihilation of the solar system

In winter, the hills on the outskirts of Beijing are covered in white, and under the cover of night. The huge white spherical celestial observation building of the Capital Observatory is hidden in the snow-covered mountains and fields. Xia Lan is sitting in the trunk of the car outside the celestial observation building

She was looking for something inside, and after a while, she brought out a cardboard box.

She closed the trunk door and was about to turn around when the brilliant starry sky above her head stopped her steps. Xia Lan's bright eyes stared at a sea of ​​stars in the night sky, but she was not intoxicated by the romantic stars. The direction she was looking at was from Jupiter.

Flying in, approaching the direction of Europa's icy debris in the asteroid belt.

She was already very familiar with that starry sky. Even the dimmest stars in it clearly knew their names and basic information. Therefore, if a tiny bright spot appeared in that starry sky, she could easily spot it.

Recognized. She stood like this in the cold wind for a while, until her hands began to feel stiff, she retracted her gaze and walked towards the Near Earth Observation Building.

In the warm room, Liu Mengzhu and Wu Fan were playing with a steaming soup pot and several plates of vegetables on a square table. Xia Lan handed the cardboard box to Wu Fan:

"These are the vegetables you asked me to bring. My mission is accomplished."

Wu Fan took the box and said:

"Okay, it's almost done. Just wait for the big meal!"

Lin Tianyu sat in front of the main screen of the near-Earth astronomical telescope control computer and stared at the dotted monitors. This was also the main purpose of their visit - near-Earth sky survey. What was different from the previous sky survey they did at the Bauhinia Mountain Observatory was that this

The target of this search is not a distant star, but a suspicious near-Earth object.

The EDA Space Defense Department believes that as the attack date approaches, alien civilizations are very likely to send close-in reconnaissance probes to the earth. If telescopes in space orbit are used to conduct sky surveys, the effect will naturally be the best. But the burden is

With a space telescope monitoring spores and ice debris, there is no extra attitude fuel to complete a 360-degree panoramic survey.

In this way, an observatory on the ground that can complete panoramic sky surveys as the earth rotates has become the most suitable choice, and Xia Lan and his team are on duty here for a month. In addition to the Capital Observatory, there are more than a dozen different locations around the world

The observatory is doing the same job.

"Did you find anything?" Xia Lan asked.

Lin Tianyu shook his head:

"There have been several times where computers automatically analyzed warning prompts, but after manual analysis, they were all false positives."

Xia Lan looked at Wei Xu next to him. The two computer screens in front of him displayed renderings of spore groups and ice blocks taken by the space telescope respectively.

"Wei Xu, what's the latest situation over there?"

Wei Xu reduced one of the photos:

"The truck-sized icy remains of Europa are flying towards us in a long formation with a width of 300 to 400 kilometers and a length of millions of kilometers. Although compared with the photos of the same period last year, their formation is much smaller.

It’s not that tight anymore. It’s about 5% fluffier. However, if you look at it on the scale of 9 astronomical units, they are still arranged as neatly as a guard of honor.”

"Is there any movement in the X-ray band observations caused by 'Boomerang'?" Xia Lan asked.

Wei Xu brought up a gray-white photo:

"No. After Europa collapsed, the ice cubes began to line up to enter the transfer orbit as if commanded by someone. At that time, tens of millions of X-ray sources would be observed a day. After entering the transfer orbit, the 'dart' activity began to gradually

Three years after entering the transfer orbit, no X-rays caused by the 'Boomerang' activity have been photographed again."

"Do you think it's because the 'darts' from the alien civilization didn't follow us, or they are temporarily inactive?" Xia Lan asked.

"It should be the latter. We have seen 'darts' in the upper atmosphere of Venus. They are very small and have no analysis system. They are all execution systems. So, I guess. They should have stopped receiving commands for some reason, so

It is temporarily dormant." Wei Xu expressed his guess.

Xia Lan frowned slightly:

"In this case, the 'darts' following the broken ice and swarms of spores should be waiting for some kind of order."

"I think they should be activated during the next orbit change, and then direct their organic biota to enter the Earth's atmosphere." Wei Xu said.

"Assuming that their command station is on the back side of Jupiter, there will be a delay of more than an hour in signal transmission. This is simply not possible to complete complex real-time operations such as the orbit change of spores and ice masses." Lin Tianyu said.

"So, I think their next activation may be related to the last Oumuamua flying to the solar system." Xia Lan said solemnly.

Wei Xu suddenly thought of something. He pulled up an image from his computer. The photo looked like a dusty crystal necklace glimmering under a candle.

"By the way, senior sister. You said before that if we follow the reflectivity of ice to light, we should be able to see a small spot in the clear starry sky with the naked eye this year. But in fact, we still can't see it with the naked eye.

I found them. I checked the observation data, although there is no visual magnitude measurement.

But I made a rough judgment based on the brightness of the photo. The reflectivity of these ice cubes is indeed lower than 1/3 of normal ice cubes."

"Could it be that organic organisms have changed the chemical properties of the ice?" Lin Tianyu speculated.

"When Europa just collapsed, I conducted spectral analysis. Except for the addition of organic metabolic elements, the water ice on Europa is basically the same as the water ice on the earth. Moreover, even if there are organic organisms wrapped in the ice

At most, it affects the transmittance of the ice but not the reflectivity." Wei Xu said.

"Then what makes them so dim?" Xia Lan said to herself.

At this time, Wu Fan passed behind them carrying a plate of fresh meat covered with plastic wrap.

"The dishes are almost ready, let's start dinner!"

Wei Xu stood up and took a few steps to the table. He opened the lid of the pot, and the boiling soup released an alluring aroma. Only Xia Lan stared at the plate of meat covered with plastic wrap in a daze.

After everyone was seated, Liu Mengzhu distributed chopsticks:

"Wei Xu, where are the things you prepared?"

Wei Xu smiled mysteriously, stood up and took out a small half bottle of liquor from the cabinet next to him.

"You can do it, Lao Wei! You can also get liquor!" Wu Fan's eyes lit up as he looked at the wine bottle. It wasn't that he was addicted to alcohol, it was just that he hadn't seen anything like this for a long time.

Wei Xu happily poured half a cup for everyone.

"You guys who serve the dishes, the meat, and the condiments don't suffer any loss! This is an old wine I got from my father, but it's only half a bottle, just half a cup per person. It's a fun day for the holidays."

Everyone picked up their wine glasses, and Liu Mengzhu looked at Xia Lan.

"Sister, please say a few words! Today is also a holiday."

Xia Lan raised her wine glass with an autumn smile on her face:

"In a few hours, this year will be over. This is the eighth year since the beginning of the crisis era, and everyone has been very good in the past eight years. In the new year..."

When the words came to this point, they suddenly stopped. The wine in the wine glasses was swaying slightly, and everyone's expressions gradually solidified. Everyone's heart was inexplicably filled with anxiety and fear. Only the soup pot under the wine glasses was still moving happily.

tumbling.

After a while, Wei Xu clinked the wine glass he raised with the glasses hanging in the air by others.

"There are at least three New Year's Days left to celebrate. There is nothing to worry about. Live the present well and leave the future to us in the future!"