It has to be said that cleaning up a sculpture is much more troublesome than cleaning a wall, and it took the probe nearly two hours to do it. After that, everyone waited patiently for nearly half an hour, until the surrounding water carried away the smoke and dust raised by the detector, and Zhou Xin and the others finally saw the real appearance of the sculpture clearly.

At first, Zhou Xin thought that it was the combined action of sediment and marine life that made the sculpture take on the shape of a sphere, but what he didn't expect was that the sculpture itself was actually a complete sphere. That's right, it's a sculpture with a large sphere in the body, and the sphere is supported by a half-moon sloping base similar in shape to the buildings built by that civilization. In addition, Zhou Xin and the others have not seen anything else on the sculpture for the time being, and the whole sculpture looks quite simple and simple. Even when Zhou Xin saw it at first sight, he wondered why that civilization would build such a featureless sculpture in the middle of the square.

When the smoke cleared, the first thing the probe could see was only the side of the sculpture. After discovering this, the detector began to move towards the front of the sculpture without Zhou Xin's command. After nearly a quarter of a turn, Zhou Xin noticed that the huge sphere was not a lonely existence, and there was a small ball connected to it on its side. The small ball is only one-tenth the size of the large ball, which is quite inconspicuous and the distance between it and the large ball is very far, and at a glance it is estimated to be more than ten times the diameter of the entire large ball. After seeing the little ball, Zhou Xinzhong felt even more confused.

The size of the sculpture itself is not exaggerated, and it took less than half a minute for the probe to travel from the side to the front of it. From this angle, everyone's eyes did not focus on the sphere itself as they did just now, but on the base that supported the sphere at the first time, and even Zhou Xin was no exception.

Because they saw that the curved surface of the base in the picture was densely engraved with a large number of words, almost completely occupying the entire front face. Although the words seem a little blurry due to the passage of time, it is easy to identify from the appearance of the words themselves, which is the legacy of the civilization that once inhabited the planet.

While everyone was quietly observing the words on the pedestal, Atlas was immediately excited, "Oh my God! Brother Captain! This is the first time anyone has seen so many words on that planet. Based on these things, people may have the opportunity to learn about the written languages used by that civilization, and perhaps even recognize the meaning of some of them. ”

"Hmm." Zhou Xin nodded, "Then hurry up and analyze." Then, knowing that he couldn't tell anything from those words, Zhou Xin turned his gaze to the huge sphere above the base after saying this.

At this distance, Zhou Xin discovered that the huge sphere on the sculpture was not a standard sphere, but an oblate sphere with a slightly bulging waist and slightly flattened up and down. At the same time, the oblate sphere, like the base underneath, is slightly tilted. Not only that, but the surface of the sphere is not smooth, but is covered with a large number of uneven irregular lines. Such a shape made Zhou Xin think of a familiar object at the first time.

In fact, after seeing the sphere, not only Zhou Xin alone, but many other people also had the same idea as him. Just as Zhou Xin was about to speak, Spred rushed in front of him and said, "Why does this sculpture look so much like a model of a planet?" ”

"Well, there's a 90 percent chance that this sculpture is a planetary model." As soon as Spred's words fell, Atlas confirmed. She then went on to add: "However, although the overall shape is roughly the same as the planet under our feet, the patterns depicted on the surface of the sphere are completely different from the surface of the planet that our probe actually observed in space. Could it be that this model does not correspond to the planet we are currently orbiting——? In the end, her words were filled with extreme hesitation.

"Wait?!" After a few seconds, the little girl suddenly screamed loudly, and then she muttered to herself in confusion, "Is that so?" Then she was silent for a while, and then she said to Zhou Xin as if she had suddenly realized, "Brother Captain, people understand that what this sculpture depicts is indeed the planet we are on. It's just not the planet it is now. ”

"You mean the previous one?" When he heard the little girl's last words, Zhou Xin seemed to have understood something, and he opened his mouth to confirm.

"That's right." Atlas nodded. At the same time, pictures of two spheres appeared on the screen. One of them is a picture of the sculpture that Zhou Xin and the others just saw, while the other is a panorama of the planet's surface captured by the probe in space.

"Brother Captain, come and see." As she spoke, the little girl overlapped the two images and then explained, "The green area is the land area of the planet's surface that the probe actually photographed in space, and the red area is all the protrusions on the sculpture." It is clear that the green areas are all within the red zone. So, if people's guesses are correct, I am afraid that this sculpture depicts a topographic map of the planet under our feet before the sea level has risen. ”

Although this result is a little unexpected, it is quite reasonable, so most people have no doubts about the little girl's guess, including Zhou Xin. However, this does not mean that everyone is not confused. Just as Zhou Xin was about to confirm Atlas's statement, Spred opened his mouth and questioned, "Since you judge that the giant sphere depicts the surface of the planet in the past, can you explain what the small ball on the sculpture is about?" ”

Hearing this question, the little girl on the screen was stunned for a moment. After a while, Atlas still didn't answer. Spred continued, "According to your statement, if you continue to speculate, the most likely identity of that ball should be a satellite. ”

"It should be—right?" After Spred finished speaking, Atlas replied in a tone of uncertainty......