Great Country Academician

Hearing this, Liu Xuan stood up abruptly, and quickly walked over: "Let me take a look."

"Here, for this set of data, the radiation flow anomaly started at 23:51:32 on April 24th, and lasted until it disappeared at 23:56:09 on April 24th, lasting less than five minutes. , when the flow amplitude was the highest, it increased to nearly three points, and showed a peak shape, from weak to strong, then weakened, and finally disappeared."

"Suspected companion star data, but it is not ruled out that it is the atmospheric activity of Betelgeuse itself"

Liu Xuan pulled a chair and sat down in front of the computer. After carefully viewing the abnormal data, he got up decisively and issued work arrangements to other students of Nantah University in the computing center.

"Cao Yang, Meng Can, please suspend the unfinished data analysis first, find the data at 23:51 on April 24th, and confirm that it starts at 23:51 on April 24th, no, from 23:50 From now on, observe whether there are other abnormalities in the data, and record any abnormalities."

"Weicheng, sort out the previous data and give me a copy of the detailed data of Betelgeuse, including the first set of abnormal data sorted out before, and send it to me."

"."

One by one arrangements came from Liu Xuan. Of course, he only had NTU students make the arrangements, and it was not his turn to direct the staff of the Institute of Astronomy.

After the senior finished handling the matter, Xu Chuan stepped forward and asked about the situation.

Liu Xuan: "It is not clear whether these abnormal data come from the companion star, but there is hope."

"If it is a companion star, other data from 51 minutes to 56 minutes will also have abnormalities, such as luminosity, temperature, spectrum, color, and radiant energy. There must be some abnormal data mixed in."

"According to this time, combined with the detailed data of Betelgeuse, we can roughly calculate the revolution period of the companion star. As long as the revolution period is determined, the approximate return period time of the next companion star can be locked. As long as these abnormal data appear again, we will It can be confirmed that the companion star really exists."

Xu Chuan nodded, and said: "Thank you for your hard work. Leave the calculation of the return period to me. You can just send the data to my email. I have learned a little bit of astronomy before and know how to calculate it."

Although he doesn't know much about astronomy, there is no problem in calculating the orbit and return cycle time of a star.

The theorems applied to these things are quite basic, and the amount of calculation is not very large.

Once the data is complete, he can finish it in a few hours at most.

Liu Xuan nodded and said, "Okay, then I will speed up the progress and try to analyze all the data tonight."

After getting the data, Xu Chuan didn't waste any time, and sat down directly in the computing center, asked for some A4 paper and a pen, and started to calculate the data of the companion star in the hydrogen envelope of Betelgeuse on the spot.

This job is not difficult for him, it's just a little more complicated.

After all, it is to calculate an internal companion star through the hydrogen envelope of Betelgeuse. Many data are inaccurate and need to be estimated. This will also lead to inaccurate return periods calculated in the end, and there will be large errors .

But it doesn't matter if there is an error, as long as a regression time point can be determined, one more observation is enough.

If the same abnormal data can be observed again during the regression cycle, then it can be confirmed that there is a companion star in the hydrogen envelope of Betelgeuse.

After all, it is periodic and almost completely anomalous to the observation data of Betelgeuse, which is enough to prove that the observed anomaly is not caused by the activities of Betelgeuse itself.

It's not that stars don't have periodic activities, each star has its own unique activity point, and there are quite a few periodic ones.

But the activity cycle time of stars is generally relatively long.

For example, the sun, the main star of the solar system, is also the closest star to the earth. Scientists have long discovered that there are periodic activities such as sunspots and flares on the surface of the sun.

The activity period is about 11 years.

During this 11-year activity cycle, the internal activities of the sun will cause prominences, flares, and sunspots on the surface of the sun to appear from low tide to high tide and then to low tide.

During the climax of the sun's surface activity, solar radiation and solar wind will cause changes in the earth's air and some substances on the ground, and may even change the earth's climate.

For example, artificial satellites, space stations, spaceships, probes and other spacecraft in space are likely to be devastated by the solar wind that counts hundreds or thousands of kilometers per second.

Or during the climax of the sun's surface activities, a large number of solar wind particles will be produced, which will reach the earth's surface through various forms such as aurora and particle storms, causing damage to the earth's power supply system and so on.

Although Xu Chuan didn't know how long Betelgeuse's activity cycle was, it certainly wouldn't be short.

From the observation data of Betelgeuse's scientific research experiment this time, the first time the abnormal data of the companion star was observed on March 27, and the second time, that is, this time, the abnormal data was discovered on April 2. number fourteen.

If it is determined that these two sets of data are all companion stars, then the return period of the companion star is only 27 days, which is less than a month, and may even be shorter.

After all, during the nearly one-month period from March 27th to April 24th, they did not observe Betelgeuse all the time. They did not know whether the companion star in the middle had returned once or many times. have no idea.

"560~752."

In the calculation center, Xu Chuan looked at the calculated data on the manuscript paper and let out a sigh of relief.

This is the return cycle time of the companion star calculated according to the data provided by the astronomical team, and it is also the revolution time of the companion star.

Oh, the unit of this data is hours, converted into days, it is about the range of 23 days to 31 days.

The time deviation is a bit large, reaching a deviation of more than a week, but this is already the most accurate figure that can be calculated based on the current data.

It is also in line with the previously observed interval of 27 days between two abnormal data, indicating that the calculated time of the regression cycle is reliable to a certain extent.

Then all that's left is to wait another month.

If abnormal data can be observed again in the next return cycle, the data can be used to confirm that there is indeed a companion star inside Betelgeuse.

This discovery is of great significance to the astronomical community.

The night time passed quickly. After Xu Chuan calculated the return period of the companion star, several brothers from Nantah University also completed the analysis of the radio telescope observation data.

It was finally determined that starting from the time point of 23:45 on April 24th and continuing until 0:09 on April 25th, there were abnormalities in the four types of data observed.

In various data such as luminosity, surface temperature, spectrum, radiant flux, and radiant energy, there are a batch of abnormal data that do not conform to Betelgeuse itself.

Spectral data, in particular, has large anomalies.

Today's Betelgeuse is a red supergiant star whose spectrum is M1-M2Ia-Iab, which has been confirmed.

In such a short period of time, no matter how active it is, the spectral data it emits will not be too far away from this spectral pattern.

But in the abnormal data tonight, G-type spectral data was analyzed.

This type of spectral data should not appear on a red supergiant star like Betelgeuse.

Those with such spectral data should be stars like the sun and Auriga, and they only have G-type spectral data.

And this also confirmed that Xu Chuan's previous calculation of the mass of the companion star was not a problem, and it met the spectral standards of stars with corresponding masses.

Additionally, there are some notable discrepancies in the radiation data.

Only 13% of Betelgeuse's radiant energy is emitted through visible light, while most of the radiation is in the infrared band.

If the eye could perceive all wavelengths of radiation, Betelgeuse, 640 light-years away, could be the brightest star in the sky, brighter than the sun.

But in the abnormal data this time, it can be clearly observed that the weight of radiant energy in the visible light band has increased by nearly 7%.

This data is very abnormal, enough to suggest that there is a problem with its source.

Based on a comprehensive judgment, the probability of an accompanying star existing inside the hydrogen envelope of Betelgeuse has increased to more than 95%.

They are getting closer and closer to the truth.

At one o'clock in the morning, the computing center was still brightly lit, and a large number of people gathered.

Not only a few seniors from the Department of Astronomy at Nantah University, but also people from the Ching Hai Astronomical Observatory were bombed over after hearing the news.

Xu Chuan and several brothers from Nantah University sorted out the data from the beginning to the end of this scientific research experiment, removed the huge observation data, and kept the key data points and calculation process, then copied the data in multiple copies and distributed them to Researchers at Qinghai Astronomical Observatory.

"It's unbelievable, it's really unbelievable."

"Judging from your observation data, there is indeed a never-before-discovered star hidden in the outer atmosphere of Betelgeuse."

"This is a major discovery in the astronomy world!"

"There are differences in the spectrum, radiant flow, and radiant energy, which are enough to confirm."

"Hiss~, how on earth did you find this?"

"."

In the computing center of the Qinghai Astronomical Observatory, the scientific researchers who have worked here all year round were so shocked that their jaws almost dropped to the ground after receiving the research data from Xu Chuan and his team.

Is there a star in the body of Betelgeuse?

This unbelievable thing stimulates everyone's brain.

For the astronomical community, this is no less than a world-class problem being solved, leaving countless problems waiting for them to solve.

If the information in their hands is published, astronomical stations all over the world will turn their attention to Betelgeuse, which is 640 light-years away.

Because this will not only bring new astronomical knowledge, but also set off a huge wave in the world, and bring countless scientific research funds to the astronomical community.

At the very least, countries must figure out how this companion star will affect Betelgeuse, whether it will prompt Betelgeuse to explode as a supernova in advance, and whether it will threaten the earth or something.

What is more critical and valuable is not the observation and research discovery that there is a companion star in Betelgeuse.

It is the calculation method for various data in this data!