On March 19, 2019, astronomer Professor Shen Wei also walked into the laboratory as usual to see the flight of the 10 times the speed of light spacecraft "Tianhua-1", which was launched three months ago. This is the first 10 times the speed of light vehicle successfully developed and put into service, and the spacecraft is flying at Proxima Centauri, the closest star to Earth, at a distance of 4.22 light-years from Earth.

Proxima Centauri is located in the constellation Centauri and has two stars next to it, which together form a star cluster. The biggest purpose of this flight is to verify its planetary system, and confirm whether there is extraterrestrial life, and then to detect whether there are any useful resources for human beings, especially new resources that are not available on the earth and are not yet known to human beings, which is very important, just like the materials used to make super spaceships, which are not available on Earth, and of course do not know this material, which was found in the asteroid belt outside Mars, without this material, it is impossible to make a spacecraft that is ten, hundred, or even faster than the speed of light. Since Proxima Centauri is close to Earth, it is not a hassle to mine new resources if new resources can be discovered here. It is theoretically inferred that this star cluster has a planetary system similar to the solar system, but much larger, but because it is a star cluster, the rules of the planetary system may be very different from the solar system, perhaps it does not have a planetary system at all, and the theoretical planetary system may just be an illusion for earthlings.

"Professor Shen, I have clearly seen Proxima Centauri, please indicate the next step. On the spaceship, Tianhua Xiaozhi reported to Professor Shen.

"Fly to the center of three stars, and then calculate the exact distance, travel rules, speed, direction, mass, and surface temperature of the three. Professor Shen said to Tianhua Xiaozhi.

Tianhua Xiaozhi is an intelligent person and the controller of the spaceship. Today, space travel no longer requires step-by-step control on the ground, intelligent humans can fully control the spacecraft, and all commands are given verbally in real time, just like humans talking to each other. There's only one control mission on the ground: come back. When the commander on the ground clicks the back button, the intelligent person cannot perform any next work, and the ship automatically flies back. This is because of a disaster that almost destroyed mankind 900 years ago, and mankind learned the lesson and left the last hand, of course, at that time, Chinese scientists firmly followed their own path and did not develop all-round intelligent people, and that disaster did not affect China in any way.

Tianhua Xiaozhi is specially designed for this mission, which means that the only mission of Tianhua Xiaozhi in his life is to explore Proxima Centauri and its planetary system. When Tianhua Xiaozhi was originally designed, it was only able to recognize Shen Wei's voice, which meant that Shen Wei was its only commander, which was also for the sake of it and the security of the data it obtained.

On the wall of the laboratory came a stereoscopic video of the Centauri planetary system sent by Tianhua Xiaozhi, although Tianhua Xiaozhi is still some distance away from the constellation Centauri, but at this distance point, the outline of the entire galaxy can already be seen clearly.

Professor Shen Wei was so excited that he immediately called Xu Jiawei, Lin Shanshan, Ma Biao, Chen Jie and other proud disciples to share this extraterrestrial feast together.

"Oh my God, the whole planetary system is a mess, completely different from the orderly arrangement of planets like the solar system. Xu Jiawei said in surprise.

"You're used to thinking on Earth, and if they have someone over there, they might say that the solar system is an incomprehensible mess when they see it. Lin Shanshan said with a smile.

Shen Wei is very satisfied with his disciples, they like to think, they are also good at thinking, and their thinking is very active, especially Xu Jiawei, who often inadvertently pops up a strange point of view when he talks about it, and if he carefully analyzes these strange views, he will find them very insightful.

Suddenly, Shen Wei found something, he pointed to Proxima Centauri and said to everyone, "Look, look, look carefully, what is this?"

"Little black dot?" Xu Jiawei jumped up and said excitedly: "There is a small black dot on the side of Proxima Centauri, which shows that Proxima Centauri itself has a set of planetary systems! It's incredible, the Centauri trison star cluster has a large, garbled planetary system, and one of the Proxima Centauri stars also has a set of small planetary systems, and it is very likely that the other two stars will also have their own planetary systems." ”

"Tianhua Xiaozhi, Proxima Centauri is suspected to have a planetary system, adjust the angle and focus of the camera system to find this small planetary system. Shen Wei gave instructions to Tianhua Xiaozhi.

Tianhua Xiaozhi understood. ”

On the wall, Proxima Centauri grew larger, and everyone stared at the small black dot they had just seen.

"One, ......two," Xu Jiawei said, "I saw five small black dots." ”

"Yes, I see that too. Lin Shanshan said.

"Professor, I propose to reorient the research and complete the mission in several phases, with the first phase focusing on this small planetary system. Xu Jiawei said.

"Why?" asked Shen Wei.

"First, we discovered the entire planetary system of the star cluster, confirming our original conjecture, it has a planetary system, but this planetary system is greatly beyond human imagination, it looks like a bunch of garbled characters, irregular, indescribable, such a bunch of irregular planets will not collide with each other, how to do it, the next step is worth our study, this must be related to the pull of three stars. Our first mission was to verify the existence of the planetary system, and this task was completed. Second, Proxima Centauri has its own set of planetary systems, which is an unexpected discovery. Accidents tend to be the point of greatest interest for people, and this scope is relatively easy to study, so we are currently focusing on it. Xu Jiawei said.

"I agree. ”

"I agree. ”

"You all agreed?" Professor Shen Wei actually thought the same as the disciples, "You all agreed, and I had no choice but to agree." But this is only the first step, and eventually we have to go back to the big planetary system, where there is a lot of space and a lot to study. ”

"Professor, if only you hadn't stopped me, I've been broadcasting to you on the spaceship, and although intelligent people are smart, they can't compare to people after all. Xu Jiawei said.

"Hmph, this is outer space travel, not child's play, even if you make a slight mistake, you will never be able to come back, this risk is too great. Professor Shen Wei said.

Three months ago, the Jinshan Astronomical Research Institute decided to send a spacecraft to visit Proxima Centauri, Xu Jiawei strongly asked to replace the intelligent person Tianhua Xiaozhi to go up, and the reason he gave was: "According to the current level of science and technology, a trip to Proxima Centauri is nothing more than three or four months, plus doing some scientific experiments, a trip back and forth, and a full year is enough." Human beings can have very intuitive perceptual cognition and rational analysis when they go to intelligent people, and what intelligent people bring back is at most objective data, and seeing may not be true in a strict sense. ”

Professor Shen Wei firmly disagreed, saying: "Outer space travel is still only theoretically mature, and there is no distance between reality and theory, and once an accident occurs, it will be irreversible. Unlike travel within the solar system, there are basically no problems, and even if there is an accident, it will be a matter of minutes. Even so, at present, human beings can only live in part of Mars in inner space, where they can develop resources and engage in some scientific research activities, and tourism has not yet been completely opened, and Mercury and Venus are only limited to travel. Therefore, this time it was resolutely disagreed with manned. ”

"Professor, you're too conservative. Xu Jiawei said. Professor Shen Wei usually treats these disciples like brothers and sisters, and they are unrestrained in front of the professor, and they can say whatever they want.

"Hmph, my point of view has always been to be bold, small and timid, and slightly bold, compared to the vast universe, human beings go to space This is a very small thing, according to my principles, I will use a small thing like this. In addition to his easy-going personality, his purpose is also to cultivate the style of disciples who dare to think and speak, which is more beneficial to astronomical research.

"At the end of the day, you're here for my safety. "But now that technology is so advanced, it's not a problem to go to a place just 4 light years away, and the risk is extremely low." ”

"That's right, Jia Wei, you're right, the very low risk also means that there is still a risk, because of this, we spent so much effort to design Tianhua Xiaozhi, let it go up to explore the way for us first, and when the conditions are ripe, we will carry people up to explore." Professor Shen Wei said.

Shen Wei is the technical authority of the institute and the authoritative astronomer in China, and no one dares to say that he agrees to manned people.

"Then I reserve my opinion. Xu Jiawei was not convinced, but he was helpless.

"You see, the planetary system of Proxima Centauri has come out. Shen Wei said, "It seems that there are only 5 planets, and at present, all of them are terrestrial planets." ”

The atmosphere in the laboratory was lively, and it was the first clear, complete and intuitive map of galaxies from outer space that mankind had taken. Shen Wei said that it is clearer to wait for "Tianhua No. 1" to get closer, and then the entire physique, the size of each planet, the distance between them, the orbit, revolution and rotation speed can be more accurately calculated.

"I'm sorry that if I had been sent there, I would have been able to investigate the planet to see if there was any life. Xu Jiawei said.

"Hmph, still thinking about this, then next time there is a chance to be the first to let you go, through this flight we have accumulated experience for human beings to fly out of outer space. Shen Wei said, "But I am against going directly to the planet." Because we don't know for sure if there are any creatures on the planets, until I fully figured it out, I thought it was, but this form of life is different from the form in our solar system, and their living environment determines that the essence of their life is not water and oxygen, and the way they exist is simply unimaginable to us, and it is more likely that we can't see them, they can see us, and it's not impossible for you to catch you when you go down and not come back. There is also a situation where if we rush to go down and bring out any germs that are devastating to their creatures, it is an extremely irresponsible biological disaster. ”

The disciples nodded their heads when they heard this, saying that the teacher was still thoughtful.

Suddenly, a red dot appeared on the other wall, flashing and flashing.