Due to the gravitational pull of the Sun, Titan's current peak speed will slowly decrease. Ruan Lin calculates that at a distance of 35 million km from Jupiter, it will decrease to 42 km/s, after which the minimum speed will be 29 km/s.

Ruan Lin continued his observations, this time focusing on the cosmic object Tabi Star, which is about 1,480 light-years away from the solar system. The earliest recorded observations of Tabi date back to 1890, 200 years ago.

Taby Star is the most controversial star on Earth, and its brightness has changed from time to time in the past 100 years, but sometimes it has returned to normal.

Ruan Lin consulted all the research materials on Tabi stars, and 80 years ago, the brightness of Tabi stars decreased by 15% in a week, and then returned to normal in two or three days.

But 75 years ago, it darkened by 22% in an irregular way. This change cannot be due to planetary occlusion, as it is an F-type star larger than the Sun.

Even Ruan Lin's upcoming trip to Jupiter, the largest giant planet in the solar system, would reduce the light of Tabi by about 1% at most.

Seventy years ago, Tabi changed by as much as 2% per day, which seems to be a regular occurrence, with brightness changing every 1,500 days and for a long time.

Ruan Lin shook his head in consciousness, practice is the only criterion for testing truth. The unknown is frightening, but it also makes people progress.

Ruan Lin supports the Dyson sphere megastructure, and the galactic laser designator on Mars is the best illustration. When Ruan Lin was on Earth, humans did not find any traces of extraterrestrial civilizations. But now Ruan Lin knows very well that he is not alone, and perhaps there are other civilizations that are silently observing his every move now.

Ruan Lin speculated that this extraterrestrial civilization must have some kind of physiological defect, and they cannot work under certain circumstances, which is also the reason why Tabi stars sometimes regain their brightness in the Dyson sphere hypothesis.

And this civilization has a large population, as little as tens of billions, otherwise it would not have been possible to spend such a price to build a Dyson sphere. It is the extraction of the power of an entire star to replenish the energy of its own civilization, and it is an immensely large project.

And the regular changes in the past 20 years seem to be the best proof of this, every 1,200 days, Tabi dimms by 2%. Over time, this Dyson sphere will become more complete and the amount of light blocked will increase.

Ruan Lin was impressed: "When I have the ability to navigate the river system, I must go and verify this hypothesis in person." ”

Another observation of Jupiter was carried out by Titan, which was 3 million kilometers away from Jupiter.

From the current distance, Ruan Lin saw that the surface of Jupiter looked like an oil painting, it was a gas giant with various dark bands on the surface, and they were all moving at high speed.

At a distance of 150,000 km from Jupiter, Ruan Lin noticed a trace of an electronic instrument anomaly.

Ruan Lin reminded: "Wit, we have arrived at the main ring of Jupiter's rings, be careful, don't touch the ring particles, there are big ones among them!" The size is equivalent to a double-decker car on Earth. ”

Wit jokingly said, "Dr. Ruan, believe in my manipulation ability, and I can fly over the rings of Saturn unharmed." ”

Wit's remarks are not unfounded, Jupiter's rings are not visible to the naked eye like Saturn. There are many examples of large rings in Saturn's rings, and there is a certain risk of direct crossing. Whereas, Jupiter's rings are diffuse and transparent, and most of them are rings the size of a grain of sand.

The Titan continued to accelerate towards Jupiter, at this time, affected by Jupiter's radiation, Ruan Lin found that he could no longer operate the external small monitoring equipment, although the interior of the spacecraft was affected, but because of the installation of titanium as a protective wall in advance, it was not a big problem.

At a distance of 40,000 kilometers from Jupiter, Ruan Lin felt the 'magnificence' of this giant planet more intuitively. Jupiter is more than 2.5 times more massive than all the planets of the solar system.

"WIT, at a distance of 20,000 kilometers, start the orbit change, adjust to 4,000 kilometers from the top cloud of Jupiter, and then start the gravitational slingshot process." Ruan Lin also reminded at this time.

While WIT was manipulating the Titan, Ruan Lin was also carefully observing the surface of Jupiter. As far as the eye can see, the iconic Great Red Spot of this huge planet is directly observed, and its boundary needs two Earths to fill.

The Great Red Spot is actually a huge storm that has been raging on Jupiter's surface for hundreds of years, and it is also the largest anticyclonic storm in the solar system.

It is the only orange-brown cyclone on the giant planet, and from a distance, it looks like the 'devil's eye' on the surface of Jupiter, moving in the opposite direction of Jupiter's rotation, as if watching every meteorite and comet, and when it finds its target, it drives its powerful gravitational pull, pulling them over and tearing them to pieces.

As the Titan accelerated and changed orbit, Ruan Lin could observe the stripes and swirls around the Great Red Spot more clearly, and Ruan Lin was distracted. They all seem to have been painted by a painter with heavier brushstrokes, like the 'starry sky' painted by Van Gogh, the master of Impressionism.

WIT interrupted Ruan Lin: "Dr. Ruan, we have entered Jupiter's Van Allen radiation belt at this time, you must immediately stop using the Hubble Telescope to continue observation, continue to use the observation elements that will damage Haber." ”

Ruan Lin hurriedly closed the binoculars: "Damn! I almost forgot to get into the radiation belt! Thanks for the reminder, wit. ”

Ruan Lin still felt that his consciousness was a little uncomfortable in the computer, and he still couldn't perform logical calculations and observations all the time like WIT, because he was still a human being.

"WIT, how many orbit changes do we have to go through to get to the given orbital altitude?" Ruan Lin asked.

"There's only one last time left, Dr. Nguyen." Wit replied.

Ruan Lin has fully believed in WIT, not as an AI, but as a trusted partner and family.

Under the manipulation of WIT, Titan entered the established orbit and began to fly away from Jupiter, by which time the speed had been significantly reduced. This was the beginning of the gravitational slingshot.

Ruan Lin felt a little itchy in his heart at this time, so he prepared to control a survey robot and continue to observe Jupiter.

"It's still so comfortable! It's like a human being. Ruan Lin used a trace of computing power to manipulate the survey robot at this time.

Substituted into the first perspective, Ruan Lin immediately turned on the track and went straight to the main control room.

Ruan Lin was a little absent-minded: although he had transferred his consciousness to the computer in order to protect himself. As long as the total carrier of consciousness does not perish, I am immortal. Then I assign a trace of consciousness to the robot, and the total carrier is still on the computer.

It's like a tree topology, I can extend a lot of branches and sub-branches, and if something goes wrong, I can recycle or cut it off right away. I needed to set up a mechanical body of my own so that I could explore the ground more intuitively.

Ruan Lin looked at Jupiter almost on his face through the porthole of the main control room, at which time the Titan began to gradually increase its speed, and it was expected to complete the gravitational slingshot acceleration in 2 hours.

Ruan Lin sat on the seat in the main control room, looking at Jupiter's colorful stripes, and gradually became distracted.

The scene he saw changed every second, until the scene of the previous second and the next second...

"With the help of Jupiter's gravitational slingshot acceleration, we will accelerate to 54 km/s and reach Europa's forecast time: 3.45 hours." WIT's prompt didn't get Ruan Lin any reply either.