Annihilation of the solar system

The Capital Observatory, surrounded by green mountains and green waters, does not have any of the heat of early summer. The cool breeze from the mountains makes the climate here particularly pleasant. Wei Xu is sitting in front of the main control computer of the Near-Earth Object Telescope, with ice fragments and spores displayed on the two main screens.

They were very close, and the forward lines almost met.

At the current distance, the field of view and focal length of the space telescope are no longer suitable for observing these two light bands that can illuminate the entire earth at night. All observation tasks are mainly responsible for ground observatories. He held the mouse in one hand and slowly

Aimlessly zoom in on an area of ​​the picture, look at it for a while, and then zoom out again.

In the enlarged picture, the crystal-like ice blocks and the peach core-like configuration of the spore clusters that make up the broken ice belt are vaguely visible. But there is one thing that is strange. If it were an ordinary ice comet, it would have been destroyed by this distance.

The hot solar wind evaporates the fog that shrouds the comet, forming a long tail.

But in the real-time photos taken with telescopes, both the spore groups and the broken ice ribbons are long ribbons composed of very clear particle structures, without a trace of water vapor evaporation. Scientists have put forward many hypotheses about this, including refrigeration

There are also talks about organic ice cubes, etc., but they have not gone into depth because there is no precise basis.

Lin Tianyu and Wu Fan were carefully checking the mechanical structure of the Near-Earth Object Telescope, Xia Lan was checking the electronic equipment inside by the server, and Liu Mengzhu was packing the things they brought into boxes one by one. They had finished

After the last sky survey, it was time to evacuate the Capital Observatory.

But no one will come to pick them up, because after the invasion begins, it may not be safe to stay in the deserted wilderness far away from the city. Although it will still be some time before the front line of the broken ice belt reaches the earth's orbit, since Oumuamua the night before yesterday

After the interception fails, everyone must be transferred in advance.

The Near-Earth Object Telescope will be converted to remote control operation mode, and they will return to the National Academy of Sciences and live there. The garage civil defense project under the Academy of Sciences building will be their bunker in the doomsday war.

"It's almost done! Let's move the things into the car and go back." Liu Mengzhu said.

Xia Lan closed the door of the server cabinet:

"Tianyu, Wu Fan, how are you doing there?"

"It's almost done. The mechanical structure has undergone simple maintenance according to the operating instructions. There should be no problems in the next few months." Wu Fan replied while closing a cover on the rotating base of the telescope.

As soon as Wei Xu stood up from his seat, the main control computer beeped. He quickly sat back, and others also cast anxious glances at Wei Xu.

"Something in the ice belt has deviated from its original track!" Wei Xu shouted.

Everyone gathered in front of the main control computer. There was a blue light on the screen, and a regular-shaped broken ice belt appeared somewhere near the forward line. The light spot was very small compared to the broken ice belt hundreds of kilometers wide.

Inconspicuous, like a giant python dropping a scale.

Accompanied by a slight mechanical sound from the telescope beside him, an enlarged high-definition partial photo appeared on the screen. A long white spot appeared on the photo, because it was covered with a layer of white fog, which could easily be seen.

He distinguished it from the band of broken ice that showed a crystal blue color.

"This is a big guy who has deviated from the original track!" Wei Xu said.

"Did it come out of orbit due to a collision or something else?" Wu Fan asked.

Wei Xu entered a line of instructions on the keyboard, and the screen on the other screen changed to an infrared imaging photo of this area. Judging from the photo rendered according to the temperature gradient, the deorbited object was particularly conspicuous. The entire broken ice belt was

It appears a low-temperature deep blue, while the deorbiting object appears orange-red.

In the enlarged infrared photo after high-definition processing, it can also be vaguely distinguished that the high-temperature area of ​​the entire object is mainly concentrated at the rear of the long strip structure.

"It is using its biological engine to accelerate out of orbit," Wei Xu said.

"Estimate its size." Xia Lan said.

Wei Xu's eyes returned to the optical photo screen. At this time, the fog around the derailed object had dispersed somewhat, and the part leaking out from the white fog was still as crystal clear as a broken ice belt. He said based on the observation data

Got an estimate:

"The length is about 10 kilometers and the width is about two kilometers! It should be made up of small ice blocks. Such large ice blocks have not been found in the broken ice belt before."

"So big! It can easily penetrate the atmosphere!" Liu Mengzhu exclaimed.

"Yes, even if it is made of pure ice. It can still pass through the dense atmosphere, and the remaining part of the friction burning is still enough to destroy the largest city on the earth in an instant, and collapse the ecosystem of half the country."

Lin Tianyu said solemnly.

Everyone watched the large ice cubes gradually flying away from the broken ice belt on the screen. At the same time, they also paid attention to the infrared imaging photos on the other screen. They were waiting for the large ice cubes to stop accelerating.

After a few minutes, the original orange-red color of the large ice cube in the infrared imaging photo began to dim. Soon, it faded into a blue color similar to the broken ice belt.

"Calculate its orbital path and determine its orbital speed." Xia Lan said.

Wei Xu cut off the screen showing the infrared photos, and after entering a few lines of commands, an orbit simulation diagram was displayed. Among them, a blue line was the predicted orbit path of the broken ice belt, which pointed directly to the earth. And the other

The red line is the predicted orbit of the big ice block. There is a slight angle between the red line and the blue line, which means that there is no celestial body on the path of the red line.

"Its orbital speed is as high as 55 kilometers/s. The orbital angle shows that this large ice block will pass by the earth from a distance of 1 million kilometers above the 30-degree latitude of the earth's northern hemisphere. Moreover, its orbital speed is too fast and will not be captured by the earth's gravity.

." Wei Xu said puzzledly.

Lin Tianyu, Wu Fan and Liu Mengzhu all had puzzled faces.

"They came to Oumuamua just yesterday, what do they want to do?"

Xia Lan looked at the large piece of ice that was far away from the broken ice belt on the real-time optical image. At this time, there was no white fog around it. Its surface looked very smooth, exuding a long blue light like a sapphire.

"It only took a few minutes to accelerate from more than ten kilometers/s to 55 kilometers/s. If ordinary water ice formed such a large structure, its stiffness would not be able to withstand such a large acceleration. It cannot be an ordinary ice cube!

" Xia Lan said.

Wei Xu frowned and carefully checked the observation data.

"But judging from the observational data, its mass and shape are consistent with ice cubes very well."

"No matter how many things there are now, keep tracking and report the observation data to the National Academy of Sciences and the EDA Scientific Committee." Xia Lan said.

"When an abnormality is discovered, the system has automatically uploaded the observation data." Wei Xu replied.

At this time, Xia Lan's phone rang. The caller was instructor Shen Manling. She asked Xia Lan and others to leave the Capital Observatory immediately and return to the resettlement site to stand by.