Great Country Academician

According to current theories, the upper limit of the mass of a planet is about 13 times the mass of Jupiter.

Once the mass of the planet exceeds this value, its weight is enough to trigger deuterium fusion, thus becoming a low-mass brown dwarf, which is out of the category of planet.

The mass of Jupiter is only about one-thousandth of that of the sun.

In other words, the maximum mass of a planet can reach at most about 1% of the sun, and no matter how high it is, it will fuse and evolve into a substar.

Xu Chuan said that there is an error in the calculated mass, so it should be estimated based on the calculation error of the mass of Betelgeuse. The current mass of Betelgeuse calculated by the astronomical community is about 11.6 to 16.6 times that of the sun. Let the conditions be slightly relaxed, and the mass remains the same. Between 10-20 times the mass of the sun.

The numbers between these masses are all calculated by traditional methods of observation. Although they are not accurate, there is no problem in using them as a reference.

The mass of Betelgeuse calculated by the Xu-Weyl-Berry mass calculation equation is 23.871911123M⊙, calculated according to the maximum deviation range, which is 23.87 to 10, and the mass deviation range ratio is 2.3, which is close to 2.4.

The mass of the companion star is calculated by the formula to be 2.7 solar masses, so even if calculated according to the maximum deviation ratio, the mass of the companion star is more than one sun.

So as long as it is confirmed that this companion star really exists, then according to the calculation data, it must be a star.

Betelgeuse's hydrogen envelope has a companion star, which has always been a speculation in the astronomy community, without any evidence to prove it.

But today, there is a high probability that this unbelievable speculation will come true.

More importantly, the diameter and mass of Betelgeuse and its companion star have been calculated, which greatly impressed Liu Xuan.

Changes in the astronomy world may be coming.

If it can be proved that this little junior’s calculation equation can accurately calculate the mass of stars, then the law of universal gravitation, mass-light relationship method, Kepler’s third law of planetary motion, gravitational redshift method and other methods for calculating the mass of stars will basically be eliminated. Lose.

For the astronomical community, this is a knife attack on the underlying calculation method, and he doesn't know how much sensation it will cause.

After completing the mass calculation of Betelgeuse in southern Yunnan, Xu Chuan did not leave. He planned to go to Qinghai with a few seniors from the Department of Astronomy.

On the one hand, the data can be checked directly after it comes out.

On the other hand, you can chat with the astronomy experts at the Ching Hai Astronomical Observatory about Betelgeuse.

His scientific research intuition told him that the reason why the first set of observation data calculated two sets of data with great deviation is probably because Betelgeuse has a companion star.

If there is a star with a mass greater than the sun in the hydrogen envelope of Betelgeuse, what will affect it is something that must be clarified.

After all, Betelgeuse has reached its old age, and a supernova may explode at any time in the future.

And whether the companion star will affect its magnetic poles during the supernova explosion is very critical.

Because from the scale of the universe, Betelgeuse is too close to the earth.

More than 600 light years, in the eyes of human beings, is an insurmountable moat, but if the magnetic pole changes and the erupting gamma ray burst is aimed at the solar system, then it will be...

Ching Hai, Ching Hai Astronomical Observatory.

Xu Chuan stood on the roof of the observation station and looked at the large radio telescope in the distance. There was a radio telescope array working there, collecting information about Betelgeuse, which was 640 light-years away.

In another day, the data he needs will be collected.

Unlike traditional optical telescopes, radio telescopes receive radio waves and can capture a lot of light that is invisible to the naked eye, while optical telescopes can only capture visible light.

So radio telescopes can see light at wavelengths many times shorter than optical telescopes, and they can see details that optical telescopes can't.

For example, the polarization of stars, cosmic microwave background radiation, etc., these are things that cannot be seen by optical telescopes.

In addition, optical telescopes are heavily affected by weather, cloudy days, haze, and light pollution will cause optical telescopes to lose their sensitivity.

The radio telescope does not, the wavelength it observes is mainly 30m-1mm, and the electromagnetic waves of this wavelength will not be affected by the weather.

Therefore, radio telescopes can see through clouds and are not affected by meteorological conditions. They can observe day and night, and have the ability to work around the clock. In addition, the wavelength and wavelength of the observed radiation are not blocked by interstellar and galactic dust clouds, thus greatly expanding the scope of human observation of the cosmic space.

These are the advantages of radio telescopes.

But relatively speaking, radio telescopes also have weaknesses. First, its imaging is processed by a computer, and what it sees is not the true face of celestial bodies.

Secondly, the accuracy of radio telescopes is actually far inferior to that of optical telescopes.

Don't look at its very high name, but in fact the accuracy is much lower than that of traditional optical telescopes.

The resolving power of an optical telescope with a diameter of 10 cm can reach about 1.4 points, and it can clearly see the details of 2 kilometers on the surface of the moon.

The world's largest movable radio telescope is a 100-meter-diameter movable radio telescope in Germany, but its resolving power is only 33 points.

This number is not as good as the 30 points of the human eye.

In other words, the human eye sees the moon more clearly than it sees the moon.

However, radio telescopes can operate online, that is, two or more radio telescopes receive radio waves from the same celestial body, and the multi-beam waves interfere. Aperture radio telescope.

This is a huge advantage that optical telescopes cannot do.

But in terms of accuracy, it is a fact that it cannot match the optical telescope.

Therefore, generally speaking, radio telescopes and optical telescopes are complementary. The two can observe a target at the same time, and then complement the data to obtain more comprehensive information.

This is the method he used to collect information on Betelgeuse this time.

Using the optical telescopes of the school and southern Yunnan to make optical observations, and then use Qinghai's radio telescope array to make up for it, so as to obtain comprehensive data.

The day passed quickly, and in the early morning of the sixth day, the array radio telescope stopped working, and the collected data was sent to the computing center for processing, which took about a few hours.

For Xu Chuan and the seniors from Nantah University, this period of time was undoubtedly difficult.

The data collected by the radio telescope in the past forty-eight hours is very important. On the one hand, the comprehensive data can be used to more accurately calculate the diameter, mass, volume and other information of parameter four.

In order to determine whether the Xu-Weyl-Berry calculation equation has the ability to accurately calculate the stars in the distant universe.

This is of great significance to the astronomy community.

If more precise values ​​of distant stars can be obtained, people can infer more information based on them.

For example, which stage of life the star is in, whether it is stable enough, whether there are other planets suitable for living around it, whether there are other intelligent races, and so on.

In addition, it also has a considerable impact on the research of fundamental physics and high energy physics.

Scientific progress requires extensive experiments to test hypotheses. In today's era, many theories can only be verified by experiments under extreme conditions such as high energy and high magnetic field.

So Europe will build a huge particle accelerator LHC, but even so, there are still many problems that cannot be completed in the earth laboratory.

Many astrophysical phenomena in the universe, such as pulsars, supernova explosions, and quasar accretion, naturally provide physical processes under extremely high-energy conditions.

Observing these astronomical phenomena can help people test theories.

Whether it is the theory of relativity or quantum theory, there are a large number of viewpoints that require astronomical phenomena to demonstrate.

It's just that these things are too far away for the current human and technological progress and development. These things are at the forefront of the most advanced theory, so even if they are discovered, it will not bring much technological progress in a short period of time.

This is very similar to mathematical physics. The top mathematical physics are already studying things in the next few decades, hundreds of years, or even hundreds of years.

No one knows how long it will take for those cutting-edge theoretical results to be transformed into scientific research results.

It is not even known whether it can be transformed into a technological achievement.

This leaves many people confused. What is the use of these theoretical mathematics, physics and astronomy?

Just like you don’t need calculus to buy vegetables, so what if you can observe the data of Betelgeuse now? Can fly over?

Just like when Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction, it was once considered useless waste.

But if it weren't for his theory, humans would probably still be burning coal to boil water with steam engines. Today's lights are so bright that no one can see them.

These tasks always need to be done by someone. There must be one of theory and technology at the forefront, and most of the time, it is theory that is at the forefront.

Without the advancement of theory, technology cannot progress.

Perhaps the waste that looks useless today will become the most important thing in the next ten or decades.

"Chuan, Chuan Shen, the preliminary calculation of the observation data of the radio telescope array has been completed."

In the office, Xu Chuan was perfecting the Xu-Weyl-Berry calculation equation in his hand. Suddenly, the door of the office was 'slammed' open, and immediately, a panting voice sounded in the office.

Xu Chuan's eyes lit up, he got up quickly, and said, "Where's the data?"

"Senior Brother Liu Xuan and the others are in the process of reorganizing. I came here to inform you in advance to make preparations. It will take about four or five hours."

Xu Chuan nodded and said, "Take me there to have a look."

At this point, he is not in the mood to continue to perfect the Xu-Weyl-Berry calculation equation. This can be done at any time, but the observation data of the radio telescope is related to the results of this research experiment.

At the Qinghai Astronomical Observatory, Xu Chuan followed the brother who reported to him to the computing center.

There is a small supercomputer here, and the data observed by the radio telescopes outside will be processed here. The observation data of Betelgeuse this time will naturally be processed here.

It's just that the data processed by the computer is still a little bit behind the data he needs, which requires several doctoral students in the Department of Astronomy to process it again.

The data after the second simplification is what he needs.

"Senior Brother Liu, how is the situation?" Xu Chuan asked behind Senior Brother Liu Xuan who was leading the team.

In front of the display screen, Liu Xuan looked up at Xu Chuan, and replied: "It is still under analysis, because it is the first time that the astronomical phenomenon that there may be a companion star in the hydrogen envelope of a star has been discovered, and there is no corresponding data in the computer. It is impossible to confirm, so at present, we can only manually check the abnormal data item by item.”

"Sit down first, I'll finish the data in my hand."

After replying, he buried his head in front of the display screen again.

Xu Chuan nodded, and leaned slightly to look at the display screen on the table. On it were a pair of graphs, various tables, and various astronomical units that recorded data.

He can understand some of these things, and it took more than half a month to make up for it in order to convert the Xu-Weyl-Berry calculation equation and apply it to astronomy.

After all, even if the Xu-Weyl-Berry theorem can calculate the information of stars, it also needs data such as eigenvalues, boundary values, and asymptotic information.

As for the observed star data, which ones meet these needs to be checked and checked, not to say that you can just put in any kind of information and calculate it casually.

As time passed bit by bit, in the calculation center, several brothers from Nantah University and researchers from Qinghai Astronomical Observatory worked together to recalculate and simplify the observation data of parameter four.

For Xu Chuan, who could only watch from the sidelines, this moment seemed extremely long.

I don't know how long it has passed, but suddenly, a figure stood up and excitedly shouted at Liu Xuan who was opposite the experiment table:

"Senior Brother Liu, I have found relatively abnormal data here, which is confirmed to be abnormal in the observed radiation flow. I have made a similar comparison with the first set of data before, and it is suspected that there is data from a companion star."