Earth Era

No matter how far the science and technology of human civilization has developed, even if today's human civilization has the ability to barely carry out interstellar navigation, the entire universe, no, even just a solar system is vast and mysterious to human civilization.

Human civilization’s understanding of the solar system is still only the tip of the iceberg.

From the inside to the outside, the solar system is composed of four terrestrial planets, then the asteroid belt, then four giant Jupiter-like planets, and then the Kuiper belt, which is the source of short-period comets. Pluto, Haumea, and Makemake all belong here. Further out is the ecliptic discrete disk, where there is an object larger than Pluto, Sedna. The aphelion of the celestial bodies here may even be as high as one thousand astronomical units, or more than 150 billion kilometers.

This distance is already very far, but there is a very important point. The farthest distance between the ecliptic disc and the sun is 150 billion kilometers, and the estimated distance between the Oort cloud and the sun is 750 to 180 million kilometers. Between billions of kilometers, then... there is a huge hole between trillions to tens of trillions of kilometers between the ecliptic disc and the Oort cloud... What is there in this huge hole?

Before Wei Feng, the longest sailing distance of human civilization was 50 billion kilometers. This still belongs to the category of the ecliptic discrete disk. We have not yet reached this huge hole, so naturally we have not been able to carry out on-site detection of this area. Scientists have been searching this area for many years through various large telescopes, but they have not found anything in this area.

Is this really a void? This seems a bit unacceptable from a common sense perspective.

In fact, Wei Feng's scientific research mission during this trip included the detection of this cavity area. Scientists hope to find something here that will improve their understanding of the formation and evolution of the solar system. This work has always been carried out by Ye Luo and does not require Wei Feng's intervention. The Xinghai spacecraft is equipped with many scientific research instruments. Ever since the Xinghai spacecraft left the ecliptic discrete disk, these instruments have been working non-stop. They have been analyzing the density of matter here, its composition type, radiation type and Strength and other information, and then package them and send them back to Earth.

But the most crucial breakthrough has still not been found. Scientists have always hoped that the Xinghai spacecraft can discover some macroscopic objects here, such as interstellar dust with a diameter of more than one centimeter. Then one day bring them back to Earth for study.

At this moment, several years have passed since the Xinghai spacecraft last woke up. During this period of time, it continued to move forward. Now the distance between it and the sun has expanded to 1.5 trillion kilometers.

Although most of its equipment has been shut down, some important instruments and equipment are still in operation. These equipment include four large optical telescopes mounted on the outer walls of its cabin. They are constantly collecting the light transmitted from the surrounding empty space. This data is then transmitted to Yeluo for further analysis.

This work has been going on for more than ten years, and until now Ye Luo has achieved nothing. But something seems different today. Through the faint reflection of starlight, a telescope captured a faint bright spot in deep space. This bright spot quickly attracted Ye Luo's attention, and then the four telescopes adjusted their angles at the same time and aimed at the light spot.

Further analytical data was quickly available. Data showed that the light point came from an irregular asteroid about 17 meters in diameter about 200 million kilometers away. Its composition cannot be analysed. But its surface is very bright and has extremely high albedo. This suggests that its surface may be made of water ice, dry ice, or methane ice.

Ye Luo's program library stores programs on how to deal with this situation. This is the huge void between the ecliptic discrete disk and the Oort cloud area. It has been thought to be empty for hundreds of years. If a star can be found here and analyzed, it will be a huge breakthrough for human civilization. Many of the difficult questions faced may be answered.

This is a very important scientific discovery, so after a little calculation, Ye Luo decided to capture this asteroid. Even if it is impossible to capture this asteroid, we must find a way to send it to get some material. But in this vast space, especially the Xinghai spacecraft is in a state of high-speed movement. It's not easy to capture this star.

The further a star is from the sun, the slower it moves. Within the speed range of the spacecraft, it can even be approximately regarded as stationary relative to the sun. It is not a simple matter for a spacecraft moving at a speed of 3,000 kilometers per second to capture a stationary object. You know, at such a high speed, if the Xinghai spacecraft collides directly with the asteroid, the huge kinetic energy brought by the high speed may destroy the entire spacecraft.

But before setting off, the engineers who built the spacecraft had already considered this situation, and they had designed a complete plan to capture the encountered stars or obtain the material on the encountered stars.

Just in this silence. A certain part of the cabin of the Xinghai spaceship, which had turned into cold stone in the universe, slowly opened. Something similar to a machine gun barrel gradually stretched out. With four large optical telescopes as eyes, the orbit and position parameters of the irregular asteroid were continuously transmitted to Ye Luo's central processor. Based on these data, Ye Luo began to adjust the angle of the gun barrel until it firmly locked onto the irregular asteroid.

Then it fired a bullet. The exit speed of this bullet is one hundred kilometers per second. Since the relativistic effect of moving objects is very weak at low speeds, its speed at this moment is a simple superposition of the exit speed and the speed of the spacecraft, that is, per second Three thousand one hundred kilometers.

It is flying towards the irregular asteroid 200 million kilometers away at a speed of 3100 kilometers per second. It is expected to hit the irregular asteroid in eighteen hours.

After the bullet was fired, another thing was launched from the cabin of the Xinghai spacecraft. After the thing was unfolded from the folded state, it showed its true appearance - it was a huge disc-shaped thing, with an outer layer made of a circle of metal, and an inner layer of huge filter. Its diameter is as high as ten meters, and its thickness is less than five centimeters. It is also equipped with more than a dozen micro-engines on its metal ring. Driven by these micro-engines, the filter equipment followed the bullet and flew towards the irregular asteroid.

Ye Luo launched a total of five units of this filter device. Obviously, Ye Luo planned to crush the asteroid first, and then use this filter to capture the tiny dust particles scattered in space. Although the filters still have a speed of more than 3,000 kilometers per second relative to the asteroid fragments, their filter structures are extremely strong and they are fully capable of capturing tiny asteroid fragments. At the same time, they also have their own power, which means that after capturing the star fragments, they can return to the Xinghai spacecraft and bring those things to the spacecraft.

The entire capture process lasted for more than thirty hours. Everything was just as preset in the Yeluo program database. The bullet first shattered the asteroid, and then the filter captured a large number of star fragments. Then he returned to the spacecraft smoothly. Before entering the spacecraft, Ye Luo had perfectly sealed these precious interstellar materials and stored them in a warehouse.

It does not have the authority to detect these interstellar materials on its own. It needs to wait until Wei Feng wakes up before it can start analyzing these materials under Wei Feng's command.

This is the only thing worth describing during this ten-year hibernation. After this incident, the Xinghai spacecraft once again returned to peace. It is still floating in this infinite universe like a cold stone until a certain time node arrives.

The pressurizing equipment is turned on, the temperature control equipment is turned on, the gas circulation equipment is turned on, the relevant life support equipment is turned on, the lighting equipment is turned on, and the thawing process begins... wake up...

"Hello, Captain, welcome to the world ten years from now." Ye Luo said to Wei Feng.

Wei Feng opened his eyes with some difficulty, and climbed up from the hibernation cabin awkwardly. He still put on his clothes as if he woke up for the first time, added some drinking water, and then spent a long time to slow down. Slowly adapt to the environment here.

"In the past ten years, how many parts have been damaged? How many bugs have you accumulated? Are there any instructions from the earth? Have you... encountered any emergencies?"

"There are seventeen parts that need you to repair and replace. I have accumulated forty-five small bugs, and seventeen notices have been sent to me from the earth. Is there an emergency? There is one thing."

Wei Feng was slightly surprised: "What's the emergency?"

"Four years ago, I observed an asteroid and shattered it with bullets. Then I captured some of the materials on it and transported them back to the spacecraft for storage." Ye Luo replied, "I didn't do anything about them. Expand the permission to detect, I have been waiting for you to wake up. But... during the transportation process, through the simplest optical sensor, I found that there seemed to be something unusual inside. I think it is best for you to investigate as soon as possible It unfolds the analysis." (To be continued~^~)