"Now that we're all here, let's get started." Waiting for Luo Jinyong to sit down, Burke said again, "The information has been pre-processed, and the data has been checked three times to confirm that it is accurate." At the current speed of the 2014X1, and the acceleration, it is almost certain that the acceleration began four hours ago. ”

Not four hours, to be exact, but four hours and twelve minutes ago.

The 2014X1 asteroid is about 220 million kilometers away from Earth, which is equivalent to 720 light-seconds, so what you see on Earth is what the asteroid saw 12 minutes ago.

In order to make communication easier, scientists ignore the time it takes for light to travel unless it is explicitly stated.

"What is the speed and acceleration now?" Luo Jinyong asked.

"One hundred and fifteen kilometers per second, with an acceleration of 0.52 percent."

Luo Jinyong rubbed his forehead vigorously, this acceleration is not fast, but it is very deadly.

"At this rate, in eight days, the speed will be doubled." Burke sighed and said, "We haven't measured the rate of change in acceleration, and if acceleration continues to increase, the asteroid's speed will double in eight days, perhaps quite impressively." ”

"In what way does an asteroid accelerate?"

"Reverse push."

"Ejecting substance?"

"There was a noticeable change in the asteroid's background flash, which led to the conclusion that it was accelerated by a reverse ejection of material."

Luo Jinyong thought for a while and said: "By measuring the velocity of the ejected matter, we can establish a continuous function, and then estimate the rate of change of acceleration. If reverse propulsion is the only way for an asteroid to change its velocity, the velocity at the end of acceleration can be estimated for several main possibilities. ”

"This ......"

"You can use the Hubble-2 telescope." Zyuganov, Russia's chief scientific adviser, proposed a solution.

"The asteroid ejects material backwards, blocking the telescope's view. It will not be observed until eight days later at the earliest. ”

"It won't take eight days." Luo Jinyong projected a star map of the solar system onto the big screen, and then walked over. "The asteroid is in orbit around Mars, exactly at the perigee of Mars, and is less than half a million kilometers away from Mars. Once the ejected material is captured by the Martian gravitational field, it will soon fall into the Martian atmosphere. Have an astronomical telescope look at Mars, which will soon be observed, and then estimate the mass and velocity of the ejected material. ”

Burke suddenly understood, and immediately made a phone call.

The Hubble-2 telescope, one of the first defense projects launched after the creation of the Planetary Defense Council, is nominally owned by the United States and was launched into low-Earth orbit in twelve times by a large Russian launch vehicle and then assembled by a large Russian launch vehicle. Last year, the Hubble-2 telescope was officially commissioned to monitor the 2014X1 asteroid, and the use of the asteroid is owned by the Scientific Advisory Board.

This was followed by a six-hour wait.

The 10 Chief Scientific Advisers were not idle, coming up with a wide range of ideas and developing contingency plans based on the most likely scenarios.

Luo Jinyong did not participate in the discussion, he felt that any ideas and plans were a waste of energy until the situation was clarified.

In fact, Luo Jinyong was also playing drums in his heart.

The reason is simple, he is the standard-bearer of the "landing faction".

After the establishment of the Scientific Advisory Board, three distinct schools of thought were formed. The "Collision School" led by Burke, the "Landing School" represented by Luo Jinyong, and the "Advent School" initiated by Professor Watanabe Keihiro, Japan's chief scientist. Each of the three schools of thought has a set of theories, and they do not give in to each other.

The core idea of the Landing School is that asteroids will not directly impact the earth, and even if they do, the speed will be very slow, and they will not have a devastating impact on the earth's ecological environment, nor will they directly lead to the extinction of human civilization. The main reason is that planets like the Earth with complete ecosystems are scarce resources in the universe; Extraterrestrial civilizations span light-years of distance between galaxies, not to destroy the earth, nor to mine the mineral resources on the earth, but to occupy the earth and turn it into their home.

To put it bluntly: the Earth's natural ecosystem is the most precious resource.

If an asteroid were to hit the Earth directly, even if the speed was reduced to one-tenth of the current speed, or 11 kilometers per second, it would cause a devastating catastrophe, not only would it lead to the rapid extinction of humanity, but also the extinction of nine out of ten species, and it would take millions of years for the Earth's ecosystem to recover.

Extraterrestrial civilizations have worked tirelessly to come to the solar system, and what they want is definitely not a lifeless planet.

Luo Jinyong always believes that the 2014X1 asteroid will slow down at the right time and eventually land smoothly on Earth, or hit Earth at a slower speed.

The problem is that what just happened is contrary to Luo Jinyong's inference.

Instead of slowing down, the asteroid is accelerating! What's worse is that the asteroid accelerates in the simplest way. If this is the only way for an asteroid to change its velocity, more material needs to be slowed down, or it is necessary to eject material forward at a faster rate during the deceleration phase.

What does this mean?

If the asteroid ejects too much material during the acceleration phase, there is not enough material to slow down, or if the material ejected during the deceleration can also destroy the Earth.

Could it be that the previous speculation was wrong?

Luo Jinyong was a little frustrated and began to question the belief that he had held on for two years.

That's right, there's certainly nothing wrong with that, and it can't be wrong!

Luo Jinyong did not lose his mind. If the theory he proposes is wrong, it is not just the Landing Faction that loses, but the entire human race!

The Adventists have always played a supporting role, and the internal contradictions of the Scientific Advisory Board mainly come from the Landing and Impacting factions.

The doctrine insisted on by the Landing faction was wrong, meaning that the doctrine of the Impactor faction was correct, and the asteroid would eventually hit the Earth at an extremely high speed.

With the scientific and technological strength of human beings, it is impossible to prevent an asteroid with a speed of more than 100 kilometers per second from hitting the earth.

The asteroid hit the Earth at this speed, and no organism other than single-celled organisms such as bacteria could survive the cataclysm.

If the impact speed reaches 500 kilometers per second, even the Earth will be finished.

At this speed, the asteroid can easily penetrate the Earth's crust, which is less than 20 kilometers thick, and then pass through the mantle and explode at the center of the earth.

After the Big Bang, there will be an additional asteroid belt in the solar system.

Luo Jinyong hammered his forehead with his fist, dispelling these thoughts that would make any scientist desperate, and trying to divert his energy to other problems.

At this moment, the phone on the table rang, and the topic under discussion immediately stopped.

"It's good, I know it." Burke put down the microphone and said, "Professor Luo Jinyong's speculation has been confirmed, and Hubble-2 has observed the ejection material that has fallen into the Martian atmosphere. The information is now being collected, aggregated every five minutes, and uploaded to the database in real time. ”

Luo Jinyong pulled the computer's keyboard in front of him and began to write a program to estimate the accelerated motion of the asteroid.

Half an hour later, Luo Jinyong wrote the program, entered the five basic data obtained, and then let the computer run the program at full speed.

"Professor." Burke looked a little anxious.

Everyone stared at Luo Jinyong, among the ten chief scientific advisors, none of them were computer engineers, and Luo Jinyong could be regarded as an expert among the ten.

"Professor Luo Jinyong!"

"The results are in." Seeing the results of the operation displayed on the screen, Luo Jinyong sighed. "The error is around 20 percent, and more basic data is needed to narrow the error. The point is that the final velocity of the asteroid will certainly not exceed 500 kilometers per second, perhaps within 250 kilometers per second, that is, twice the speed before the acceleration. The point is that the asteroid does not lose more than ten percent of its mass during acceleration, so there is enough mass to slow down and the deceleration does not eject material too quickly. ”

"Are you sure the asteroid will slow down?" Burke is clearly out of tune with Luo Jinyong.

"Professor Burke, in the past two years, our differences have long been made public. I'm not sure the asteroid will slow down before impact, but what's in it for everyone? Even if an asteroid hits the Earth at a speed of 250 kilometers per second, you will be finished within 24 hours of impacting more than 8 billion people around the world. We will see how it will end, but we must not lose hope, let alone despair. "Luo Jinyong has enough ability to go against Burke, and he has been going against Burke for two years." The day of judgment will be at least a month, perhaps two months, in advance. I suggest that the development of ongoing projects be accelerated. Even if there is only a 1 in 100 million chance of an asteroid slowing down, we have to give 300 percent of our efforts, because this is the only hope! ”

"I support Professor Luo Jinyong's proposal that we must not despair, let alone give up our efforts before the day of judgment."

Luo Jinyong nodded at Zyuganov, and the two worked together for two years to suppress Burke and weaken the influence of the United States on the scientific advisory board.

The other chief scientific advisors were shaken, and Burke was no exception.

Anyone with a bit of sanity can see that the doctrine of the Impactors will only make people despair, the Adventism insisted by Watanabe Keihiro will weaken the will to resist, and only the Landing Faction will inspire everyone and preserve the last glimmer of hope for humanity. It is in this way that the Landing faction can gain the upper hand on the Scientific Advisory Board and become the spiritual pillar of the Planetary Defense Council, driving the rapid progress of various scientific research projects and defense projects.

Luo Jinyong has always believed that Burke is also a believer in the Landing Faction, but for some reason he has held up the banner of the Collision Faction.

"Everyone, let's vote according to the old rules." Burke sighed to himself. The looks of the other chief scientific advisors convinced him that if he came out against Luo Jinyong, it would only make everyone despair, and he would become a public enemy of the scientific advisory board.

Watanabe Keihiro voted against, and eight others voted in favor.

The result of this vote made the vote in Burke's hand worthless.

Although the United States has 60 percent of the voting rights of the Scientific Advisory Board, and only 26 percent of the voting rights are required to reject a proposal, that is, the Chief Scientific Adviser of the United States has one veto power, in order to contain the United States and prevent the Scientific Advisory Board from being manipulated by the United States, as long as it is supported by the eight Chief Scientific Advisers, the veto power of the Chief Scientific Adviser of the United States will be automatically invalidated.

Mr. Luo's proposal has received eight votes in favour.

"I will report the results of the vote, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff will make the final decision." Burke also breathed a sigh of relief, at least he didn't directly support Luo Jinyong. "After obtaining enough basic data, I will be anxious again for the chief advisory meeting, and you must submit the progress report of the scientific research project and defense project you are responsible for as soon as possible, and formulate a plan for later development. If Professor Luo Jinyong's proposal is supported at the Joint Chiefs of General Staff, we will be able to adjust the existing project as quickly as possible. Regardless of the outcome, one thing is for sure, and that is that time is running out for us. Victory or defeat, destruction or survival, hurry up. ”

For the most part, Burke was more of a good playmaker.

"If there is nothing else to talk about, let's end the meeting." Burke looked tired and a little emaciated. "Professor Luo Jinyong, you stay first. I'd like to see the simulation program you wrote, it's better to do it a few more times, we can't let the Joint Chiefs of General Staff make decisions on the wrong basis. ”

Luo Jinyong sat down again, Burke was not suspicious of the program he had written, but wanted to talk to him alone.

When Zyuganov walked past Luo Jinyong, he patted Luo Jinyong on the shoulder. The meaning is very clear, he doesn't want Luo Jinyong to get too close to Burke.

On the scientific advisory board, Luo Jinyong and Burke focused on academics, while Zyuganov did not.

The reason is that in the defense project codenamed "Operation Courage", Russia has been fighting openly and secretly with the United States in order to gain dominance.

Zyuganov and Burke are bitter rivals, and Luo Jinyong plays a decisive balance between the two.

When the others were gone, Burke went to turn off the video surveillance equipment, and unplugged the power of the microphone and other recording equipment, and then sat down next to Luo Jinyong.

Burke is not stupid either, he is the chief scientific adviser of the United States, and of course the national interests of the United States are at the forefront of the national interest.

There are things that can be said and things that can be done, but there is no evidence left behind.

Luo Jinyong knew that this was not the first time he had communicated privately with Burke, and that Burke's bitterness showed that he was not a qualified American citizen.