"How did the probe choose such a landing direction?" Zhou Xin asked with a frown. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Today, the screen is pitch black, and you can barely see anything except a blurry arc in the corner of the lens. It's no wonder that Zhou Xin would ask such a question.

"People don't want to." Atlas replied a little helplessly, "When I first discovered this planet, it was fine, just like the photos you saw before, Captain's brother." However, when the probe was about to land, it happened to circle into the shadow zone behind the supergiant planet. The results of the calculations show that it may take more than ten days to wait for it to fly out of the shadow zone. They didn't want to wait so long, and the darkness didn't affect the landing of the probe anyway, so they let it continue to land as planned. ”

"I see, I thought the probe would have to land from the shadow zone of the planet for some special reason." After listening to the little girl's explanation, Zhou Xin understood. As the conversation progressed, the screen began to glow red, and the surface of the planet, which was only faintly visible, became even more blurry under the red light. Seeing this picture, Zhou Xin knew that the detector had entered a state of high-speed fall.

During a high-speed fall, it is almost impossible to see anything other than the crimson glow in front of the detector's lens. So, while waiting for the probe to arrive on the ground, Atlas briefed Zhou Xin on what the planet is known to be in the picture.

"The diameter of that moon is about 6,000 kilometers, and if you take it alone, it can even be considered a planet. However, just because the star it orbits is a planet, it can only receive the title of a satellite. Listening to her tone, it seemed that she was still angry that the planet in front of her was just a satellite. However, then her tone returned to normal, and then continued: "According to the time standard on the spacecraft, the rotation period of this satellite is about forty-three hours, and the orbit period around the supergiant planet is about three hundred days. As shown on the screen now, because of the orbit, there are two types of dark nights on this planet: one is the ordinary night formed by normal rotation, and the other is the long night that occurs only once every 300 days, when the satellite orbits the shadow region of the supergiant planet. In addition, the probe also observed the presence of a magnetic field on the planet's periphery, which is about one-third of the strength of the Earth's magnetic field. That's all we know about the planet so far, and more information can only be found after the probe lands on the planet's surface. ”

At this time, Zhou Xincai, who had just been sitting in his seat and quietly listening to the little girl's introduction, said thoughtfully: "It sounds a little similar to the environment of the earth, but I don't know if there is life on the planet." ”

Not long after this sentence was spoken, the screaming sound from the high-speed fall began to weaken from the information transmitted by the probe. At the same time, behind the scream, a jet began to slowly grow stronger. Hearing this voice, Zhou Xin immediately realized that this should be the probe's thrust reverser activated. In less than a minute, the screaming had completely disappeared, and the sound of the jets had ceased to grow stronger. Zhou Xin was very familiar with this kind of sound change, and he clearly knew that as long as the sound of the jet disappeared completely, it meant that the probe had successfully landed on the planet.

Originally, Zhou Xindu was already waiting to hear the slight impact sound of the probe when it landed, but the sound that came back next was completely unexpected by him. When the jet sound was already very weak, there was a clear "whoosh" sound in the sound transmitted by the detector, and there was a large number of subtle breaking sounds along with this sound. Just over a second later, he heard several more noticeable cracking sounds. Then came the familiar sound of hitting the ground, and after this sound, Zhou Xin also heard the sound of rolling. Along with the rolling sound, there are still large and small cracking sounds and rattling sounds. Starting with the crash, this series of sounds lasted for nearly twenty seconds before stopping. Then, there was silence in the office.

"How's the probe going? Did you land successfully? The silence lasted only a few seconds, and Zhou Xin asked with concern.

"It's already falling to the ground." Atlas replied with a hint of strangeness, "However, the probe seems to have hit something as it approached the ground, and the entire landing attitude has changed dramatically. Hearing this, Zhou Xin's face showed some worry, but the little girl then added, "However, the detector itself has not been damaged much, and it has now begun to adjust its own attitude." ”

The little girl's explanation was the rattling and cracking sound that had just been heard from the detector, but it didn't take long for the sound to disappear again. The moment the sound disappeared, the screen, which had been pitch black from the beginning, finally lit up. Zhou Xin was finally able to see the environment around the location of the probe.

At the first glance of the picture, Zhou Xin only saw a lot of columnar objects standing upright on the ground. As the detector lens moved, Zhou Xin found that almost all of the surrounding areas were the same cylindrical objects, with only one direction. What could be seen in that direction was only a short section or a columnar object that fell to the ground, and when he saw those columnar objects that fell to the ground, Zhou Xin immediately understood what the probe hit when it landed.

Because of the relationship between the dim light and the field of vision, at the first time, Zhou Xin didn't seem to recognize what those dense columnar objects in front of the detector lens were. However, Zhou Xin's failure to recognize it does not mean that Atlas did not recognize it. When the camera pans around and returns to the direction of the broken column. The little girl said, "Brother Captain, those—they look like trees." ”

"Trees?" After being slightly stunned, Zhou Xin found that those columnar objects were indeed very similar to trees as Atlas said. Before Zhou Xin could give the order, the probe had already begun to approach one of the broken columnar objects. Just halfway through, Zhou Xin was almost certain that it was a tree from the broken state of the pillar and the leaf-like objects scattered on the ground next to it. Thinking of this, his heart couldn't help but get excited. However, before he got the final confirmation, he was actually a little nervous in his heart. I'm afraid that the columns are not trees, but just a geological phenomenon unique to this planet.

The wait was long, and after a few minutes, Atlas finally received the results of the analysis sent back by the probe. She said to Zhou Xin with certainty: "It has been determined that those columnar objects are trees. Then her tone became a little strange, "Judging from all aspects, the age of the tree in front of you should be more than five hundred years old, but the diameter of the trunk is only less than one meter, what is the situation?" ”

"Whatever it is." Zhou Xin was in a very happy mood at this time, "As long as it is a genuine plant, this at least proves that there is life on the planet." ”

"Well, Brother Captain, you're right." Atlas's tone changed from doubtful to excited, and then she reported even more exciting news, "Brother Captain, not only here, but also the probes that landed elsewhere on that satellite have found the same trees near the landing site. Judging by the footage taken by the probe in space before, it is suspected that all the continents of the planet should be covered with similar plants. ”

After listening to Atlas's words, Zhou Xin immediately recalled the dark green continent on the planet he saw not long ago, and he subconsciously agreed with the little girl's judgment. Then Zhou Xin said with a tone of amazement: "If it is really as you say, then this planet is probably the planet with the highest vegetation coverage rate among the planets we have seen so far." ”

"It's also the planet with the highest vegetation cover you've ever seen." The little girl on the screen also nodded her head twice.

"In that case, let the probe continue its investigation of the planet." Zhou Xin commanded, "Let's see how this planet is different compared to other planets. ”

"Well, people are also curious......"

However, the ensuing investigation process was not as smooth as Zhou Xin imagined. What's more, unexpectedly, it was not the slow long night on the planet that affected the progress of the probe's investigation, but the dense growth of trees. Their dense distribution severely hindered the probe's progress. In desperation, Atlas had no choice but to let the probe fly to the top of the tree, and at this time, she found that the trees here were actually much higher than expected, and the probe flew up nearly a hundred meters before approaching the canopy, and then flew upwards for more than twenty meters before passing through the canopy. This was just the beginning, and Atlas was surprised to find out as the probe flew over the woods. Not only the tree that the probe passed through, but many of the trees around it were about the same height, and there were even taller trees in the field of view of the camera. Of course, there are some low ones, but at first glance, the trees here are generally much taller than the trees on Earth.

However, after analyzing the environment on the surface of the planet, it didn't take long for Atlas to come up with the reason why the planet's trees could grow so high.

"Mainly because the planet's gravity is relatively small." The little girl explained to Zhou Xin, "The gravity on the surface of this planet is less than half of the earth's surface, so the height of the trees is not bound by too strong gravity. At the same time, coupled with the fact that the trees are generally older, it is natural for them to grow to such exaggerated heights. After saying that, she added, "Actually, not only the trees on that planet, but also the flowers and plants that grow on the ground are much higher than those on Earth. As he spoke, several photos of unknown flowers and plants appeared on the screen.

After observing the flowers and plants in the picture for a while, a doubt suddenly appeared in Zhou Xin's heart, "Atlas, have you noticed that these plants we have seen, although they are tall, they seem to be relatively weak. ”

"That's true." The little girl nodded, "It's not just the captain brother you've seen, all the plants that people see in the probe's observation range are all relatively delicate. Therefore, it can be judged that the growth of plants on the entire planet should be about the same. As for why it became like this, according to people's analysis, I am afraid that it cannot be separated from the dense growth of trees. After a pause, she continued, "Although the soil on the planet's surface is still fertile, dense plants will inevitably compete with each other for nutrients, which leads to the fact that all plants do not get enough nutrients, so they grow slowly. This is also evidenced by the narrow growth rings exposed in the broken trees. ”

"I see." Zhou Xin nodded knowingly.

"Brother Captain, it's snowing." Just as Zhou Xin was about to continue asking questions, Atlas spoke first.

At this time, under the light of the detector, snowflakes are slowly falling in the sky. The snow is not very big, but each snowflake itself is not small. Zhou Xin can even see the shape of those snowflakes that are relatively close to the camera. With the falling snowflakes, Atlas said, "The planet's surface is starting to cool down. Then she switched between several different detector images, and in most of the shots, Zhou Xin could see falling snowflakes, and in one or two of the scenes, the snow was still quite large, and in a short period of time the canopy was already covered with a thin layer of snowflakes.

"It seems that the insulation effect of the planet's atmosphere is not very good." While Zhou Xin was observing the picture on the screen, the little girl said, "It's only been a few hours since you entered the shadow zone, and the temperature in most areas of the planet is already close to or below freezing. If people are not mistaken, I am afraid that the next ten days of life on the planet will not be easy. ”

"But it's kind of luck for us." Zhou Xin had a different idea, "I just took this opportunity to observe the unique environment of the entire planet during this time. Then his voice was tinged with some gratification, "It's good that you discovered this planet sooner, and if we had been late, we wouldn't have had time to stay in this star system for another year." ”

"Hehe, that's it, brother captain, you don't look at how good people are." The little girl was immediately proud. Of course, she did not forget to let the probe continue to investigate the planet's surface......