Annihilation of the solar system

Everyone gathered in front of Xia Lan's computer. An image with crosshairs appeared on the screen. The quality of the image was very poor, with snowflakes flashing constantly. Moreover, the entire image was white, especially in the four corners of the image.

"Is this a real-time picture?" Lin Tianyu asked.

Xia Lan looked at the constantly beating data at the bottom of the screen, hesitated and said:

"To be precise, it should be the real-time picture from half an hour ago. However, we are 4 astronomical units away from the detector. Taking into account the communication delay due to the constant speed of light, this is the most real-time picture we can receive."

"The image quality is too bad. I remember when we originally designed the 'Windmill' detector, the visible light probe was not weight-saving!" Liu Mengzhu looked confused.

Xia Lan pointed to a set of data at the bottom of the screen:

"This is the speed of the aircraft. It is decelerating rapidly. The nozzle of the deceleration engine and the camera are both facing the target. It should be that the flame of the deceleration engine affects the image quality."

"Yes, that's right, the infrared signature signal of the 'Windmill Detector' is very obvious now." Wei Xu said, staring at his computer. An infrared imaging photo was displayed on his computer screen, which was responsible for tracking the contact of the detector.

Real-time footage captured by the Webb infrared space telescope during the ice breaking process.

"According to the set program, the deceleration process will stop when the relative speed between the detector and the broken ice belt drops to 2km/second. There will be another deceleration before contacting the broken ice. After that, if our luck is not too good,

Bad. The probe of the detector will be inserted into a piece of crushed ice at a suitable speed." Xia Lan said while staring at the data under the screen.

As the relative speed value gradually decreases, the clarity of the picture begins to gradually improve. In the center of the crosshair, some white bright spots can be vaguely seen. However, the white glow in the four corners of the picture is still seriously disturbing.

Picture quality.

When the data in the column showing the speed stopped at 2.00km/s, the whole picture became clear in an instant. Everyone present was shocked by the picture transmitted back in real time. Even Wei Xu left his computer to gather

Came over.

The broken ice belt in the picture is as bright as a princess's belt studded with jewels. Each ice block that makes up the broken ice belt is of the same size, and the spacing is basically the same. This strip is made of crystals arranged neatly.

The glacier flows slowly on the screen.

"Oh my God, they are so..." Liu Mengzhu couldn't help but sigh. Although she didn't say the last word, everyone knew what she wanted to say. But no matter what, no one could say that

The word applies to this band of broken ice formed by the remains of Europa.

This is the first time that humans have seen this destructive but extremely beautiful broken ice belt at such a close distance. Under the yellowing sunlight, it flows poignantly and indifferently, and it is constantly flowing.

Rushing towards the earth at the second cosmic speed.

"How far is the detector from the broken ice belt?" Wei Xu asked.

Xia Lan took a look at the data:

"There are still more than 2,000 kilometers, and we will touch the outermost ice of the broken ice belt in about ten minutes."

Just when everyone was preparing to spend the next ten minutes with bated breath, snowflakes suddenly flashed on the originally clear screen, and everyone moved closer to the screen.

"What's going on? Is the detector malfunctioning?" Lin Tianyu asked.

Xia Lan carefully identified the data that was starting to become blurry:

"No, the returned data shows that there is no problem with the status of the detector. But the signal strength is very unstable."

Just as Xia Lan was talking, the snowflakes that were originally scattered were already flying around on the screen. The data under the screen was completely unclear, and the crystal-like ice cubes on the main screen turned back into blurry spots of light.

.But the difference from before is that the entire screen becomes blurred instead of the four corners.

"Is the detector slowing down again?" Wu Fan asked.

"It's not like that, you can see the data below clearly when you slow down. The way it looks now, it's more like the return signal is attenuated or interfered with." Xia Lan replied.

Wei Xu rushed back to his computer in two strides, and after repeated confirmation:

"Judging from the thermal imaging photos, the detector's retrorocket should not have been activated. However, the infrared signal of the thermal radiation beacon can still be captured."

"The thermal radiation beacon is a device on the detector that emits a heat signal according to a set temperature so that we can capture it through the space telescope. This shows that the detector is still working normally," Xia Lan said.

At this time, Xia Lan's screen was filled with snowflakes, and the characters "Signal Lost" flashed above the snowflakes. Everyone gathered in front of Wei Xu's computer again.

On Wei Xu's screen, the ice-clear ribbon was just a bunch of blue dots. The detector was a tiny yellow-green dot.

"I thought that the 'Windmill Project' we designed with great effort would allow us to see the true appearance of alien civilization's creations in advance. Unexpectedly, it was just a glimpse in dim light." Liu Mengzhu lamented.

Wu Fan comforted her:

"At least I took a look, and the detector is still heading towards the broken ice belt. Maybe the video signal is faulty. If the detector's probe successfully collects the sample, the analysis data may still be transmitted back.

.”

Everyone pinned their last hope on Wei Xu's computer screen. As time went by, the small yellow-green dot representing the detector gradually disappeared into the long blue dot matrix, and everyone's breathing stopped.

It got worse involuntarily.

Finally, the small dot disappeared into the blue dot matrix. Xia Lan stood up and looked at her computer screen. The words "Signal Lost" were still flashing. She looked at her watch again.

"The detector has entered the broken ice zone, but there is still no signal."

"Is the detector's heat signal beacon blocked by ice?" Liu Mengzhu asked.

Xia Lan slowly shook her head:

"Judging from the time, the detector did not slow down. Even if it hit the ice, it should have crashed."

The last glimmer of hope, like a candle in the storm, was extinguished without any accident.

Tears appeared in the corners of Liu Mengzhu's eyes, and his voice became choker:

"They are like executioners in the dark. They only flashed their sharp butcher's knives for us and then disappeared into the darkness again."

Wei Xu said seriously:

"Thankfully, EDA did not approve the 'on-orbit hit' plan of using super nuclear bombs to attack them in diverted orbits.

If that plan had been passed, what we would see now would be tens of thousands of nuclear bombs that took several years of the earth’s production capacity to produce, and all of them would misfire more than 2,000 kilometers away from the target. I can’t imagine what such a scene would bring to mankind.

of despair and helplessness.”

Wei Xu's words made everyone feel numb on the scalp and cold on the back. This is indeed a blessing. If this were true, how would mankind spend the last three years of civilization in despair and chaos.