A month later.

The smoke of war in Iraq has cleared and IS has officially become history, but the 400,000 United Nations troops have not withdrawn from Iraq and Syria, but have been converted into peacekeeping forces on the spot, and the various factions in Syria and Iraq have imposed a high-pressure segregation of the armed forces in Syria and Iraq.

At the same time, the European Union and Russia have also sent a considerable number of troops into Ukraine, and the fighting in Ukraine is gradually dissipating.

In China, the CEO of the Baodao region visited the mainland of Wèn to have a historic meeting with the Grand Elders.

Tensions in the Western Pacific, which had been going on for almost a month, finally had room to ease.

The ultra-independence faction in the treasure island was unwilling to be lonely, and created a series of violent KB incidents, which were suppressed by the treasure island authorities by force.

Just when people were talking about the situation on the treasure island, another shocking piece of news came out.

On August 1, 2013, China, the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and other countries held a joint press conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York, announcing cooperation in the construction of a space elevator project in the waters off Madagascar in Africa, in preparation for the large-scale entry of mankind into space.

As soon as the news came out, the people of all countries were stunned.

It was only at this time that the media and the public, who had been puzzled by the international situation for several months, faintly smelled something unusual.

Some rumors began to circulate among the people of various countries, such as what mankind is about to face the end of the world, the earth is destroyed by a super earthquake, aliens are about to descend on the earth, and so on.

All kinds of news are flying all over the sky, but governments have never come forward to refute the rumors.

……

The capital of Iceland, inside a villa on the outskirts of Reykjavík.

The villa looks like no other villa in Reykjavík, with perhaps the only difference being the large reflective optical telescope at the top of the villa, which points high into the sky.

This is the home of the famous European astronomer George Brooke.

"Brooke, your phone!" the wife hurried downstairs with a cell phone.

In the living room, George Brooke was reading today's newspaper when he heard his wife's voice. He took off his glasses and took the phone from his wife.

"Hey, hello, who is it?"

……

"What? I am, yes, yes, have the calculations come out? Okay. I'll take a look at my mailbox right away. ”

George Brooke hung up the phone and went straight to his study.

He turned on his computer, went to his Yahoo mailbox, and downloaded a PDF of the attachment to a new email.

George Brooke double-clicked to open the PDF text, which was about a dozen pages long, densely filled with mathematical formulas and English instructions.

George Brooke quickly flipped through the text, and his face became more and more solemn.

Until the last page of the text, when he saw the final calculation, Brooke involuntarily broke the pencil that had been dragging in his hand.

"My dear. What's wrong with you?"

My wife came over with a cup of freshly brewed coffee.

George Brooke looked up and smiled reluctantly at his wife, "It's okay!"

He looked down and thought for a moment, then pulled out his phone and dialed a number.

Soon, a familiar voice rang on the other end of the phone: "Hey, Brooke, why did you remember to call me today?"

On the other end of the line was Dr. Schwartz, the famous astrophysicist and vice president of the European Astronomical Union. He was also a classmate of Bruck at the Technical University of Munich, and the two had been friends for many years.

The voice on the other end of the line was a little noisy. There seemed to be a lot of people talking, but Brooke couldn't hear any words.

Brooke said, "Schwartz, where are you now?"

"I'm in Mogadishu, what's wrong?"

"Why did you get to that damn place? I want to ask you, has the European Observatory noticed anything unusual in the asteroid belt lately?"

Schwartz seemed to hear something and asked, "Asteroid belt?

Brooke said, "Mathilde, the Mathilde asteroid, just two months ago. When I was observing the Mathilde asteroid, it seemed strange to accidentally discover the asteroid's orbit, and for the next two months I spent tracking the asteroid and calculating its orbit. And guess what I found?"

"What did you find?"

Brooke took a deep breath and said, "According to the latest calculations, the orbit of this asteroid will coincide with the Earth in forty months, what does this mean, I don't think you will be unclear!"

To Brooke's surprise, Schwartz did not react in particular.

"Brooke, I know about this, and I'll let the people at the European Observatory keep following up. ”

Brooke was slightly stunned, vaguely feeling something, and he asked, "Schwartz, do you already know?"

Schwartz said: "Okay, Brooke, this is not something you can participate in, you don't want to touch it again in the future, otherwise it will be difficult for me to guarantee the consequences, so be it, I still have something to do, hang up first!"

Listening to the beep on the phone, Brooke buried his head in thought.

In Mogadishu, Schwartz hung up the phone and headed straight back to a conference room.

There were about 20 people in the conference room, basically all over the age of 40, and they were basically top people in the astronomical community of various countries.

The only exception was the young man from the East who looked to be in his twenties, but the scientists from all over the world were listening intently to what he had to say.

In addition, next Monday, the Galileo spacecraft, a new generation of space optical telescope jointly developed by China, the United States and Europe, will be launched, which will replace the Hubble telescope and become the farthest optical astronomical telescope ever seen. At the same time, it will also become a large observation base for humans in space, which can accommodate about eight astronauts at the same time. I would like to announce that I have been selected as one of the first two resident scientists of Galileo. Professor Schwartz from the European Astronomical Union and Dr. Chang Xiaotian from the Purple Mountain Observatory in China! If there is no doubt, this is the end of today's meeting.

Chen Xin got up and was just about to leave the conference room when he saw Dr. Schwartz, who had just been announced as the resident scientist of the "Galileo" space telescope, coming over.

"Mr. Chen, wait a minute!"

"Dr. Schwartz, what's the matter?"

Chen Xin looked at this bearded German.

Schwartz hesitated for a moment and said, "I just received a call from a friend in the astronomical community, who said that he had discovered the Mathilde's anomalous ......."

"Oh?!"

Chen Xin didn't see anything abnormal on his face, and said, "I know!"

"Mr. Chen, that ......"

Chen Xin seemed to know what Schwartz wanted to say, waved his hand and said, "Dr. Schwartz, I will deal with this matter, your main task now is to prepare for the Galileo." ”

Schwartz looked at Chen Xinyuan's back, a little confused. (To be continued......)