"You say, could it be that the Atlanteans made a mistake in their observations, and that there was no planet in this place in the first place?" Spred asked. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

After listening to Spred's words, Zhou Xin did not answer, but looked at Dart in the other direction with a puzzled gaze.

"I don't know." Dart replied honestly, "I've also seen this star map, but the star map only marks the location of each planet, and there is no specific observation, so I don't know what the ancestors deduced from this location that there is a planet." ”

"What about Atlas?" Zhou Xin asked.

"I don't know." Atlas replied, "However, those grandfathers are very serious about doing things, and generally do not record things that are not confirmed, and I have a lot of research materials in my database that are half of the research materials of the year, and some of the studies are even almost completed, but those grandfathers still have not made a final conclusion, so if the orbit of this planet is marked on the star map, then there is more than 90% probability that this planet does exist." Uh-huh, that's it. As she spoke, the little girl who had appeared on the screen nodded affirmatively.

"Then let's wait until the probe has explored the last area before we talk about the next thing." After listening to Atlas's words, Zhou Xin made a decision......

Twenty hours later, the probe finally came with good news, the last planet marked on the star map was found, and Zhou Xin, who heard the news, hurriedly put down his work and came to the command module.

The moment he entered, he saw that Spred and Dart had already arrived, and now they were looking at the big screen, and the attention of the others in the command cabin was also focused on the big screen. Zhou Xin saw that everyone's faces in the command cabin, including Dart and Spred, were a little bad, and everyone was frowning and looking at the big screen.

Seeing Zhou Xin enter the command module, Dart and Spred turned their heads to look at him, and Zhou Xin asked, "Didn't you find the last planet?" Why are your faces so ugly? What is this planet like, is it still a giant planet? ”

"Giant planets are not." Dart frowned and replied, "It's an ordinary rocky planet, but—you'd better come and see for yourself." With that, he took two steps to the side and made way for Zhou Xin.

Zhou Xin took two steps forward and looked up at the big screen, where a dark red sphere the size of a ping-pong ball emitting a faint glow was hanging quietly in the middle of the screen.

"Glowing rocky planets?" Zhou Xin muttered, "What kind of strange planet is this, is it some special natural wonder?" ”

As Zhou Xin looked up at the screen, the Voyager began to report to him about the situation on the planet, and the people around him had no intention of listening, it seemed that the Voyager had already told them about the situation of the planet before Zhou Xin came.

"The planet's position is within the orbital range indicated on the star map, but now the planet is located at the farthest point from the star, and the predicted area given on the star map is very large at this location, so it took a lot of time to search for this planet." Voyager first explained to Zhou Xin why it took the probe so long to find the planet, and then began to introduce the planet.

"As indicated in the star map, the orbit of this planet is nearly perpendicular to that of the other three planets. The probe also observed that there is a significant wobble in the orbit of the planet today, and it is unknown what the reason is, and the probe is approaching the planet to investigate. The first situation reported by the Voyager caught Zhou Xin's attention.

"Swing?" Zhou Xin asked suspiciously, "What kind of swing?" ”

"The planet revolves around the central star in a serpentine orbit." The Voyager simulated a short period of the planet's trajectory on the screen, and Zhou Xin saw a curve swaying back and forth appear below the star map, and the swing amplitude was not small, about the length of the planet's diameter. Generally speaking, normal planets do not wobble so significantly, and they do not swing so often. ”

"Why is the trajectory so weird?" Zhou Xin asked suspiciously.

"It's really weird." Atlas took over, "Generally speaking, planets with this kind of orbit should be a two-planetary system, two planets revolve around each other, and the orbit of each other is combined with the orbit of rotation and orbit to appear such orbital traces, and this swing amplitude, the mass of the two planets should be about the same, but only one planet appears in the lens of the probe." The little girl in the corner of the screen showed a thoughtful expression, "Then she slapped her palm, could it be just blocked, but it can't be." She frowned, "How could it be just in the way, the lens of this distance probe should be able to tell the difference between the two planets." Could it be that another planet is particularly dense and very small? ”

"Forget it, you don't have to worry about that." Zhou Xin waved his hand at the screen, "The probe is about to approach that planet, and we'll know in a while." ”

As soon as Zhou Xin's words fell, the door of the command cabin opened, and Ralph led Christy through the door, during this time, both of them were busy arranging the life of the Atlanteans, according to Dart: "Christy has really grown up, and this period of time has helped me a lot, if it weren't for her, maybe I would have been busy for a long time to settle everyone down." The little girl who was with her also helped a lot, and I must thank her another day. ”

"Done?" Seeing the two of them coming in, Zhou Xin asked curiously, "Why do you have time to come here?" ”

"Let's take a break." Ralph glanced at Zhou Xin.

Christy was a little embarrassed, "We were just done with what we were doing, and Ralph just heard that a new planet had been discovered, so he brought me over to take a look." ”

"Where, where? Where is the new planet? As he spoke, Ralph pulled Christy to Zhou Xin's side, Zhou Xin pointed to the big screen, and Ralph looked up.

"It's so far away." Ralph's tone was slightly disappointed, but after taking a closer look, she was surprised, "Eh, I'm not mistaken, this planet is actually glowing?" What's going on? ”

"Voyager, why does this planet glow faintly red?" Zhou Xin also asked the Voyager the question he had in mind at the beginning.

Before the Voyager could reply, Atlas rushed to say, "Of course this planet will glow, and its surface is a full 3,000 degrees Celsius." ”

"Three thousand degrees!" Zhou Xin was suddenly very surprised, "You're not joking, are you?" ”

"According to the results of the infrared detectors installed on the probe, the temperature on the surface of the planet exceeded three thousand degrees Celsius." Voyager gave the probe's findings in a serious manner.

Of course, Zhou Xin didn't think that the Voyager was joking, so he finally understood why everyone had such expressions when they first came in.

"What now?" Spred asked, "Is there any collection equipment on board that can withstand 3,000 degrees of heat?" ”

"How is that possible?" Zhou Xin smiled bitterly, "Our existing materials can withstand the impact of this high temperature in a short period of time, but if we can work for a long time at a high temperature of 3,000 degrees Celsius, how can it be possible." By the way, I remember that your material technology is not higher than ours, isn't it? Don't you have the materials to meet the criteria? ”

"It's about the same as you." Spred spread his hands, "The highest stable working environment of the materials we make is about 2,000 degrees, and it can only barely move for a period of time in a high temperature of 3,000 degrees, and then it will not work, and it will not be able to meet the needs of collecting resources at all." ”

"We have a material that fits the current situation." Dart continued, "The maximum operating temperature of this material is around 3,000 degrees Celsius, which is barely in line with the environment on this planet. ”

"But there's no production equipment here." Atlas's words ruthlessly shattered the last glimmer of hope, "The equipment used to produce Tim Alloy is very complex, and it will take a lot of time to replicate it." Moreover, the yield of this alloy is very low, and in-depth research is required if you want to mass produce it. ”

"......" Zhou Xin was a little helpless, "Don't put forward this kind of experimental thing in the future, there are not enough people on the ship to invest in new research for the time being." ”

At the same time as they spoke, the probe was already very close to the planet, the planet in the screen was already bigger than the full moon, Zhou Xin and they stared at the screen for a long time, and found that the surface of the planet in front of the camera was completely covered with dark red light, and Zhou Xin couldn't find a place with a slightly lower temperature on the surface.

"This planet - why does it look like it's missing?" Careful observation of Christy seems to have noticed something unusual.

"Huh! It seems like that's really the case, looking at it, it really looks like there's no piece. Ralph also noticed this at Christie's reminder, pointing in a direction on the screen and screaming in surprise.

Zhou Xin also looked carefully at the edge of the planet, and found that one side of the planet seemed to be a lot less than the other, and the shape of the edge of the missing side was still a little irregular. He thought for a moment, then said disapprovingly, "Maybe it's a matter of the viewing angle, wait for the probe to get closer." ”

For the next few moments, everyone speculated about why the planet was able to maintain such a high surface temperature at such a distance from the star, while staring at the screen. In this regard, Atlas really put forward a more reliable conjecture, she thinks that the planet is still in the cooling period after it was formed, and the temperature on the surface is still cooling, so the temperature above it is still so high. But there is also a big problem with this statement, the previous lifespan of the rocky planet was about 2.5 billion years, and the lifespan of the other two giant planets was 2 billion years longer than that of the rocky planet, which is a relatively accurate conclusion reached by the probe after measurement, and the error is less than 100 million years. It stands to reason that the time for the formation of planets in the same galaxy should be about the same, how can it be possible to form different planets in 4.5 billion years. Zhou Xin asked this question when the probe first came up with the lifespan of the two giant planets, but the Voyager could not answer this question due to lack of clues, and now there is a newly formed planet here, which Zhou Xin thinks is really incredible.

"That's just the most likely outcome I've speculated." "Other causes are not ruled out, but other causes are even less likely." ”

Zhou Xin didn't have any opinion on Atlas's thoughts, he quietly listened to the discussion of the people around him, and his attention was basically focused on the screen, only occasionally saying a sentence or two.

After more than ten minutes, the probe got closer to the planet, and some obvious features on the planet's surface were already faintly recognizable. Zhou Xin found that until now, the irregular edges on the side of the planet on the screen have not disappeared, and Zhou Xin even vaguely saw that there were abnormal depressions in the irregular edges of the planet, and Zhou Xin had a bad premonition in his heart.

After another ten minutes, the irregular edge on the side of the planet became more obvious, and everyone also discovered the anomaly of the planet at this time, and the heated discussion stopped at once, and everyone focused on the screen.

"Voyager, can you zoom in on this part?" Zhou Xin asked, pointing to the irregular edge that he thought was a matter of perspective.

"The detector has turned the lens to the highest resolution, and it is not possible to zoom in further." The Voyager replied in the negative.

"Irregular edges that don't seem to be a matter of perspective?" Dart seemed to see this, and he said hesitantly, "It looks a little like -- a bit like a large crater?" ”

"It really seems like it's a crater." "But—this crater is a little too big," Spred continued. There was also a hint of uncertainty in his tone.

As the probe continued to approach the planet, the figure of the planet on the screen became larger and larger, and finally, Zhou Xin and the others finally saw the terrain on the surface of the planet. When they saw the terrain, they were all stunned by what they saw.

The planet seemed to have been dug up by a huge spoon, and the irregular edges that everyone had seen before were missing by a third, and through the missing parts, Zhou Xin could even identify the internal structure of the planet—the crust, the mantle, and even a small part of the earth's core was exposed.

"Oh my God! How did this planet look like this! Ralph exclaimed......