"Captain's brother—"

"What's wrong?" From Atlas's tone, Zhou Xin heard a hint of strangeness, and he asked curiously.

"Based on the images taken by external probes, one of the asteroids that people have observed around us today seems to be something different." The little girl replied with hesitation. As she spoke, she adjusted the angle of the external probe and focused her camera on the asteroid she was talking about.

"Different? What's different? Looking at the picture on the screen that hadn't changed much compared to before, Zhou Xin asked.

"Well—it's bigger—it seems to be bigger than any other asteroid." Hearing Zhou Xin's question, Atlas did not speak immediately, but replied after a period of repeated confirmation.

"Bigger?" Zhou Xin knew very well that the asteroid that could attract the attention of the little girl and report to him was definitely not just a little bigger, but there must be other special features about the asteroid.

Sure enough, Atlas replied, "Aside from being a little larger than the other asteroids, the surface temperature of that asteroid seems to be quite high from what has been observed in the infrared band." Not only that, but there seems to be something special about its signals in other bands. By this time, she was more sure of the result, so her answer was much more coherent than before.

"In that case, let's send a probe to investigate." When she said this, Zhou Xin also became interested, so he opened his mouth and commanded.

And just like that, it didn't take long for a probe to fly out of the Voyager. After a short hour's flight, the probe came to the vicinity of the asteroid that caught Atlas' attention.

In fact, just when the probe was still some distance away from the asteroid, Zhou Xin had already noticed its specialness. As an asteroid, it actually emits a faint red light, although the light is extremely weak, but this is obviously extremely rare. At the first glance of the red light, Zhou Xin thought it was his own illusion, or some other external factor caused the asteroid to look like it was glowing. However, as the probe got closer, he finally determined that the red light was emitted by the asteroid itself. Next, when the footage of the probe showed more detailed pictures, Zhou Xin was even more surprised to find that the red light was not emitted from somewhere on the asteroid, but the entire surface of the asteroid was emitting a faint red light.

Just as Zhou Xin was observing the dark red asteroid in the picture with a surprised look, the probe had already flown to the vicinity of the asteroid under the control of Atlas and launched an investigation into it. It didn't take long for Zhou Xin to wait for the preliminary results of the investigation.

"Brother Captain, the asteroid in front of us is nearly circular, about a thousand kilometers in diameter, and the probe even observes the presence of a weak magnetic field near it. Judging by its size and the orbit of the probe, the asteroid is quite dense, and it is tentatively speculated that its main component is a mixture of iron and nickel. The surface of the planet is in a semi-molten state, with a temperature of about 2,000 degrees Celsius, and the red light we see is emitted from the semi-molten surface. After introducing the basic situation of the asteroid, Atlas continued with a puzzled tone, "But it stands to reason that the surface of the asteroid should not have such a high temperature. Even if it starts out with a higher temperature than that, it should cool down quickly in a short period of time. Unless—"

"Unless the asteroid has only just formed, so the temperature hasn't had time to drop yet." Zhou Xin continued.

"But ordinary asteroids shouldn't have such a high surface temperature at the beginning of their formation, could it be that this asteroid only experienced a violent impact not long ago?" Zhou Xin's explanation did not solve the little girl's doubts, and she continued. However, as the probe continued to orbit the asteroid, this speculation was quickly denied by the little girl herself, "It's not right, if it's just an ordinary impact, the temperature distribution on the surface of the asteroid shouldn't be so uniform." Could it be that it is a fragment that has fallen off from another larger star? ”

"If an asteroid of this size is just a fragment, how big would the planet it belonged to belong? Could it be a planet? Following Atlas's train of thought, Zhou Xin continued to analyze, but judging from the tone of his words, he obviously didn't believe in this speculation.

"Hmm, brother, Captain, it's not impossible for you to say that." Atlas thoughtfully continued, "If this is really what we speculated, then it means that there may have been a violent star impact event in this star system not long ago, otherwise it would be difficult to form an asteroid like the one in the picture." But what does that look like? As she spoke, her brow furrowed, "We still have too few clues now, and it's really hard to analyze." ”

"Then send some more probes to investigate it." This conversation made Zhou Xin even more curious about the asteroid in the picture, and looking at the dark red star on the screen, he said to Atlas.

"Hmm." Atlas nodded, and then she continued as if she were talking to herself, "People always think that asteroid may not seem as simple as it seems-"

"Isn't it that simple?" Zhou Xin heard the little girl's words, he lowered his head and thought for a while, and then said disapprerovingly: "I think it's too complicated for you to think, although astral collision events are rare, they are not impossible, haven't we seen them once before?" Perhaps, the asteroid in front of us has experienced a similar situation? It's just that the impact is most likely a bit larger. ”

"Maybe it's really like what you said, brother captain." Atlas said as he launched the probe outward, "But even so, this asteroid has high research value, after all, an asteroid that has just experienced a star impact is not so easy to encounter, and it must retain a lot of information about the original impact event, which can fill in a lot of gaps in people's databases." ”

"If you want to research, you can do it." Zhou Xin only reminded him, "As long as we don't forget our top priority." ”

"Brother Captain, don't worry, people haven't forgotten, the probe has already landed on the planet." Atlas replied.

"Hmm." Zhou Xin nodded with satisfaction.

Next, let's put our perspective back on the Voyager. During the entire process, the spacecraft did not stop flying into the star system because of Atlas's accidental discovery......