cosmic hegemony

Chapter 210, The Spirit of Scientific Exploration
Here in the asteroid belt of the solar system, the "Ocean" spacecraft is constantly advancing in the void, but compared with the vast universe, it seems to be standing still, even though its speed has exceeded 30 kilometers per hour. Seconds, but it still seems very, very slow in the vast universe.

The originally boring interstellar journey is now within the range of the asteroid belt, and scientists can study these asteroids around them, so they are also very busy.

"According to the reverse deduction based on the data we have obtained so far, more than 30 billion years ago, there was definitely a planet with a mass that reached the planetary level in the asteroid belt, at least this mass would not be much lower than that of Mars."

"However, as time goes by, when the mass of Jupiter continues to increase, its mass gradually becomes the second only to Mars in the solar system. Its strong gravitational force, coupled with the huge gravitational force of Mars, at a certain moment, When the three planets formed a line, they were pulled by the huge gravitational force."

"Boom! The planet fell apart and became the current asteroid belt. Countless fragments spread continuously in the void, forming an asteroid belt similar to the orbit by inertia."

The astronomers Tang Boyuan and Dong Zhifei who came with the "Ocean" spacecraft were using a supercomputer to simulate the development history of the solar system.

The sun with the longest history in the solar system is naturally the sun, which has a long history of no more than 50 billion years, and as a yellow dwarf, the sun's lifespan will be as long as 100 billion years, so the sun at this time has just reached middle age.

The life of the earth is about 46 billion years, and its history is also very long. Of course, in the long history of the earth, it is a dead planet. Only about 6.35 million years ago, the earliest complex structure organisms began to appear on the earth. As for microorganisms Groups will have a longer history of existence.

The history of humans appearing on the earth is even shorter. Early humans appeared slowly about 5000 million years ago. According to the research of scientists, in the history of human evolution, many types of humans appeared at the same time at a certain period. This difference between races is not the difference between yellow races, blacks, and whites.

Now these three kinds of people are usually able to reproduce with each other. In fact, the race can only be regarded as one kind. In the development process of the earth's history, there have been several races, and they cannot reproduce with each other at all. , like the difference between a tiger and a lion.

Of course, in the end our ancestor Homo sapiens gained the right to rule, and other races gradually disappeared. As for how they disappeared, I think everyone should be able to know that natural selection and survival of the fittest.

Therefore, scientists are very keen to study the history of the earth and the history of the solar system, because only by knowing the history, that is, knowing yesterday, can we cherish the present and survive better in the future.

"Didi~" Dong Zhifei, who was in charge of monitoring the surrounding planets and celestial bodies, knew when he heard the sound that the detector must have discovered some large celestial body again, so he quickly looked over.

"This is Ceres!" Dong Zhifei compared the discovered large planet with all known planets, and immediately knew that this asteroid was Ceres.

Ceres is the smallest dwarf planet in the solar system and the only dwarf planet in the asteroid belt.It was discovered by the Italian astronomer Piazzi and announced on January 1801, 1. In 1, the International Astronomical Union redefined Ceres, once considered the largest known asteroid in the solar system, as a dwarf planet.

To put it simply, the identity of Ceres has been controversial internationally. Just like Pluto, it was initially positioned as the same status as the eight planets. Later, with the understanding of the universe, it was downgraded to a dwarf planet.

And this Ceres was considered the largest asteroid at first, but with in-depth research on it, astronomers upgraded it and classified it into the dwarf planet sequence, which is at the same level as Pluto.

"Discover Ceres, discover Ceres!"

The dull spaceship was detonated by this news!

Ceres is one of the main targets of this scientific expedition. As the largest asteroid that has been discovered in the asteroid belt, it is even positioned as a dwarf planet by the latest International Astronomical Association, because it is basically round and has a stable orbit around the sun. Orbit, just not emptying other asteroids in its own orbit.

The most important thing is that Ceres is not only the largest star in the asteroid belt, but more importantly, based on previous observations, there should be a lot of water resources on Ceres.

Another important purpose is to find out what the mysterious white spot on Ceres is!
"The current speed of Ceres is 16 kilometers per second, and the orbit radius is 4.12 million kilometers. It is in a state of falling, and the speed is increasing slightly!"

"It is currently 4239 kilometers away from Ceres!"

……

"I finally found Ceres. I thought it was hidden in that corner!" Li Fu hurried over after getting the news. Ceres is one of the important targets of this scientific expedition, but the asteroid belt has been in the asteroid belt for more than ten years. It took a few days, but there was no trace of it, and he was really a master at playing hide-and-seek.

"Don't talk about Ceres, it was first deduced by scientists using formulas, and then scientists focused on observing the asteroid belt to discover it!" Speaking of the stories of these planets in the solar system, Tang Boyuan, who studies astronomy, naturally knows it very clearly .

"Oh, there's another story like this? Let's hear it!" Li Fu became interested as soon as he heard it.

"Yeah, it's boring anyway, let's listen to it to relieve boredom!" The other people are also very interested, there is really nothing to do in this space, especially when flying, listening to stories is also a good idea way to relieve boredom.

In 1766, when a middle school teacher named John Titus in Germany was studying a set of numbers, he found that each item of this set of numbers was consistent with the six known planets at that time (namely Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) to the ratio of the distance to the sun (the distance from the earth to the sun is set as 6 astronomical unit) has a certain relationship.

Titius’s friend, the astronomer Bode knew the significance of this discovery, so he announced the discovery of Titius in 1772. Since then, this series of numbers has attracted great attention of scientists; Deuss-Bode's law is the average distance between the planets in the solar system and the sun.

At that time, people had not discovered Uranus and Neptune, and thought that Saturn was the planet farthest from the sun.

In 1781, Herschel, a British-German, discovered Uranus at a position close to 19.6 AU (that is, the eighth item in the sequence). Since then, people have firmly believed in this rule.

According to this rule, the fifth item in the sequence, that is, the position of 2.8, is the asteroid belt that everyone is in now, and it should also correspond to a planet, but it has not been discovered yet.Therefore, many astronomers and astronomy enthusiasts embarked on a journey to find this new planet with great enthusiasm.

On New Year's Eve in 1801, the Italian priest Giuseppe Piazzi was still attentively observing the starry sky.Suddenly, he discovered a very small star from the telescope, which happened to be at the position of 2.8 in the Titius-Bode rule.The planet shifted position over the observation period of several days.

However, when Piazzi wanted to observe the asteroid further, he fell ill. When he recovered his health and wanted to search for the asteroid again, it disappeared. Piazzi did not give up this opportunity. , he believes that this may be the planet that people have not discovered.

Astronomers have mixed opinions on Piazzi's discovery.Some people think that Piazzi is correct; others think that this may be a comet. There are many opinions about this planet, and the astronomy community is full of discussions.

Months passed, and the debate was still inconclusive.However, this debate has attracted the attention of the German mathematician Gauss.Gauss thought, since astronomers can't find Ceres through observation, can they find it through mathematical methods?Many astronomers dismissed Gauss's suggestion.

Astronomers can't find Ceres, can Gauss still calculate it?Friends also advised him not to waste his time and intelligence on this hopeless problem.

The young Gauss had his own opinion.He believes that astronomy is inseparable from mathematics.It is impossible to be a good astronomer without a strong knowledge of mathematics.The same is true in the history of astronomy.Kepler discovered the three laws of planetary motion by virtue of his mathematical ability; Newton also discovered the law of universal gravitation by virtue of his profound mathematical knowledge.

On the night of December 1801, 12, German astronomer Olbers aimed his telescope at the sky at the time predicted by Gauss.As expected, Ceres miraculously appeared again!

Gauss' calculation method succeeded.The planet that Gauss found from the tip of his pen became the best New Year gift for mankind after being hidden for a whole year. This gift showed people the great role of mathematics in scientific research.

As Tang Boyuan slowly told the story of how Ceres was discovered, the young scientists bowed their heads in thought!
"Compared to the persistence and perseverance of the senior scientists, I think we are still too impetuous!" Li Fu thought for a long time and expressed everyone's thoughts.

This group of scientists of Fuyun Group has achieved extremely brilliant achievements, but all of this is based on the various auxiliary tools provided by Li Fu. Practicing Yuanli can improve everyone's brain development, so that everyone can better understanding of the problems encountered in scientific exploration.

Provide advanced scientific research instruments and advanced theories and methods, so that everyone can avoid countless detours, but all this has also caused the young scientists of Fuyun Group to be more impetuous, without the persistence and persistence of their predecessors.

It is conceivable that if the group of Fuyun Group were placed in the historical conditions of their predecessors, they would definitely not be able to study one thing persistently for decades or even a lifetime like the scientists of their predecessors.

Although taking shortcuts has created the brilliance of Fuyun Group, it also makes everyone slowly lose the perseverance and persistence that scientists should have. This is not beneficial to the development of science and technology in the future. It is a good thing to take a detour, suffer a little, encounter some tribulations and setbacks!
Hearing Li Fu's emotion, the scientists of the Fuyun Group far away on the earth also fell into deep contemplation. When they encounter problems and difficulties, they habitually rely on Li Fu instead of sinking their hearts and wholeheartedly. Go research!
"It seems that we still have to make everyone suffer more in the future!"

Li Fu muttered in his heart when he found out.

You must know that in the early scientific research, there was no computer, so the statistics and analysis of a lot of data needed to be calculated by hand. All kinds of scientific truths have been explored. Thinking about the advanced mathematics we have learned, it makes people dizzy just by looking at it, not to mention the tireless research and calculation.

And there are many, many things to be explored by oneself, not only scientific truths, but also too many, too many important discoveries in the history of mathematics development, and these discoveries are all slowly explored by predecessors in mathematics .

Mathematics is the most important subject in science nowadays, and it is also the foundation of modern science. Almost all sciences are inseparable from the application of mathematical knowledge!
Of course, now with the assistance of computers, scientists no longer need to perform complex calculations over and over again on paper with a pen in hand when calculating complex data. The supercomputer's super computing power allows scientists to Calculation results can be calculated in a very short time.

But it is also easy for scientists to gradually lose the persistence of their predecessors in the exploration of scientific truth. In scientific exploration, many things actually need to be explored over and over again, so that they can discover the truth of science on the surface of complex affairs. truth.

Li Fu looked at the dark starry sky outside the window, and kept thinking in his mind. With the seeds of super civilization, Li Fu was destined to lead China and mankind quickly out of the earth and into the interstellar universe. We are slowly losing the spirit of scientific exploration that has been passed down for a long time.

But if you don't lead the development of science and technology, it may take a long time to get out of the earth based on the speed of technology development on the earth, let alone how long it will take to get out of the solar system.

The vast universe is too vast, and there are so many powerful civilizations. The people on earth have been able to develop steadily for so many years, and it is still luck. Of course, it may also be because the location of the earth is too remote.But in any case, it is best to hold your own destiny in your own hands.

There are too many things that are worth thinking about, especially for Li Fu to think about and think deeply.

PS: Get up at 6 in the morning to code words, quack.The speed is fast, ask for a ticket!

(End of this chapter)