Cotillard, who is also a scientist, is in a tight heart, Yuri Miller's identity and knowledge needless to say, even he is so desperate, it seems that the earth is indeed in big trouble. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

"As we all know, I teamed up with Mr. Hawking, the smartest brain on the planet, and Mr. Pokzag, the founder of Facebook, to announce a plan in April last year, called 'Breakthrough Photography' (not made up by myself, you can spend a while). ”

Cotillard was shocked and lost his voice: "Oh my God, have you really discovered an alien intelligent life that threatens humanity?"

In July 2015, Stephen Hawking announced the launch of the largest search for extraterrestrial intelligent life in human history, called TheBreakthroughListen. The operation, which will be conducted by scanning the universe, will take ten years and will cost $100 million.

But in April 2016, it was announced in conjunction with Yuri Miller what was called the 'Breakthrough Starring' program. The plan is simply to use nanotechnology to develop and build thousands of small nanospaceships the size of postage stamps, accelerate them to 20% of the speed of light with solar sail technology, fly to our nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, and send back photos.

Alpha Centauri, one of the closest stars to the Sun, is 4.2 light-years away. It is a three-star system with three stars, two of which form a binary star system and the other is far away and does not cause much interference.

Because of its proximity to Earth, in many novels, it is believed that there is a cosmic civilization in the constellation Alpha Centauri. The home of the Three-Body Man in Liu Cixin's famous science fiction novel "The Three-Body Problem" is a three-star system, inspired by the centaur Alpha Star.

There is another reason why Alpha Centauri frequently attracts attention. That is, in the environment where Proxima Centauri operates, there is a planet that may have a suitable planet for life to reproduce, Proxima B, which is called the brother of Earth.

For these reasons, Cotillard naturally thinks that there is an extraterrestrial intelligence in Sagittarius and poses a threat to Earth.

Yuri Miller shook his head with a wry smile and explained, "Not really, Lady Cotillard. The breakthrough is just a cover for the stargazing project, and we haven't found any extraterrestrial intelligence. ”

"So, what is the real purpose of the Breakthrough Star Project?"

"It's reconnaissance!"

"Spotting extraterrestrial intelligence, or habitable planets?"

"Neither. ”

The Breakthrough Star Project, in the publicity to the public, is aimed at investigating the environment of the Centauri Galaxy. But his real purpose is to be a sentinel.

"What the hell are you worried about?"

Yuri Miller sighed deeply, and said in an infinitely sad tone, "We are worried about the most powerful force in the universe. Then he went through the crowd one by one and whispered, "Supernova explosion." ”

"Supernova explosion?"

Dr. Cotillard was a little stunned, and although she and Yuri were in different directions, as an erudite scholar, this did not prevent her from understanding the meaning of the supernova explosion.

The so-called supernova explosion is a phenomenon in the universe.

The internal temperature of massive stars is much higher than the surface, and the core temperature of the largest supergiant stars exceeds 1 billion trillions. For a stable star, the theoretical upper limit of the core temperature is 6 billion K. Above this temperature, the photon energy emitted by the star's internal matter will be so high that it can be converted into positive and negative electron pairs when it collides with each other, and this reaction will destabilize the star and eventually destroy it in a huge explosion.

The interior of the star mainly relies on the energy generated by nuclear fusion to fight the gravitational pull of the star itself to maintain stability: the outward expansion force formed by the release of energy is counterbalanced by the gravitational pull of the star. The larger the star, the more energy it needs and the faster it consumes hydrogen. The formed helium then proceeds to fuse to form carbon and oxygen atoms, and the degree of fusion depends on the mass of the star.

As mass accumulates in the inner core of the star, the gravitational pull increases, and the raw material for nuclear fusion becomes scarce, and when the force provided by the "degeneracy" between the energy of nuclear fusion and the free electrons cannot resist the gravitational pull, the star will suddenly collapse, reaching a speed of more than 45,000 miles per second, and the temperature of the core will rise rapidly.

Under the action of gravity, the gas smashes into the core at nearly the speed of light, and this process will have a "rebound effect", and the incoming part of the gas spins upwards and blows out of the core. The extrusion of electrons and protons in the inner core produces neutrinos, and when the neutrinos pass through the dense gas, they are partially absorbed, and the gas gains huge energy, resulting in a huge explosion, which produces X-rays, gamma rays, ultraviolet rays, and the gas absorbs heat again, and the temperature rises to millions of degrees.

Supernova explosions in the universe are very deadly events, and the shock waves generated by their explosions can travel hundreds of millions or even billions of light-years in the form of light.

The power of the supernova explosion is very terrifying, not only Dr. Cotillard, but even Jixiang and Tang Scarlet Carp are nervous, through their descriptions, this kind of world-destroying level power, I'm afraid even Lu Zheng can't grasp it.

Miao Yue frowned and asked, "You mean to say that there is a supernova about to explode in the constellation Centauri, and then it will affect the safety of the Earth?"

"No, no, no. Yuri Miller shook his head again and again: "If there is a supernova explosion in the constellation Centauri, then I think even a god-level civilization may not be able to save us." It's too close to need gamma rays, just a shock wave, and it's enough to destroy the solar system. ”

"Actually, our real coordinates are the Ita (η) Nebula at the bottom of the ship, a celestial body that is about to end its central nuclear fusion, 7,500 light-years away from Earth, and on the verge of a supernova explosion. The X-ray space telescopes of China and the United States discovered last year that they had entered a period of instability in the 20-year cycle. ”

7,500 light years is out of reach for humans. But on the background of the large scale of the universe, it is actually very close, very close distance. Once the ship's bottom Ita supernova erupts, it can produce intense gamma-ray bursts, which are the deadliest rays in the universe, and there is no one.

If we are aligned in the direction of the Earth, we may be affected by it. All life on Earth is exposed to intense gamma-ray bursts, and almost no life can survive, and the ozone layer in the Earth's atmosphere will be destroyed, forever losing the possibility of giving birth to life again, and becoming a wasteland planet like Mars.

"Dr. Miller. Dr. Cotillard frowned, "Oh, by the way, he's a researcher at the Chandler X-ray Telescope Observatory. He told me that the Ita Nebula of the Katana Terta, although very unstable. But within a thousand years, there is absolutely no possibility of an outbreak. ”

This is also the assertion of most astronomers and astrophysicists, and it is obviously a bit unfounded to worry about what will happen in a thousand years now.

But Yuri Miller shook his head and said, "I thought so a year ago. However, the situation has changed. Dr. Cotillard, you should know that at the beginning of 16 years, the Huaxia Observatory observed the most powerful supernova explosion in history, 3.8 billion light-years from Earth. Unfortunately, the powerful gamma-ray burst beams produced by the poles of the ASASSN-15lh supernova targeted the Ita Nebula at the bottom of the ship and had a fatal effect on its structure. I have reason to believe that the eruption of the Ita Nebula is not far away. ”

"The most unfortunate thing is that the Earth is also at the opposite pole of the Ita Nebula's axis. Dr. Cotillard, you should understand that gamma-ray bursts travel in the form of light beams, like flashlights. Even 7,500 light-years in its path is enough distance to destroy the Earth. ”

It sounds like a coincidence, but in the context of the universe, which is a super-large star with trillions and hundreds of billions of stars at every turn, such low-probability events will be infinitely magnified.

"7,500 light years, even light has to travel 7,500 light years, right?"

Tang Scarlet, who didn't know much about astronomy, asked a stupid question. However, Yuri Miller did not dare to laugh at her, but said solemnly: "This lady, you are wrong. Gamma-ray bursts can be as short as thousandths of a second or as long as hours, releasing enormous amounts of energy in a short period of time. If compared to the Sun, it releases energy in a matter of minutes equivalent to trillions of years of sunlight, and the energy of a single photon it emits is often hundreds of thousands of times that of typical sunlight. ”

"A strong beam of intense gamma radiation, 75 million light-years, is close enough. When it is oriented exactly towards the Earth, the strong beam travels at the speed of light, which will destroy all life and destroy the Earth's civilization in an instant. ”

"The most terrible problem is that the speed of light! when we see the light, it proves that the light is already in front of us. ”

Seeing Tang Scarlet's puzzled expression, Cotillard gestured and explained: "The actual situation is that when we observed the light of the supernova explosion, the moment was already 7,500 years ago. Just like an electric light, its light travels in the form of photons, and the speed is the speed of light, and if it is 1 light-year away from us, the light we actually feel is that it was emitted a year ago. ”

Miao Yue was surprised: "You mean that when we observed the supernova explosion, the gamma-ray burst had already hit the earth?"

Yuri Miller nodded heavily: "Yes! The state of the Ita Nebula that we are observing now is the state it was 7,500 years ago. Perhaps it had already erupted, and the light of destruction was on its way. The moment we saw it, it was all over. ”

(A lot of scientific names have been kept as simple as possible to make everyone understand what I want to say.) In addition, this book will not go in the direction of science fiction, describing these is an introduction, leading to the next series of things. ）