Chapter 210, The Spirit of Scientific Exploration
In the asteroid belt of the solar system, the "Ocean" spacecraft is constantly moving forward in the void, but compared with the vast universe, it seems to be standing still. Although its speed has exceeded 30 kilometers per second, it still seems very, very slow in the vast universe.
The originally boring interstellar journey has now entered the range of the asteroid belt, and scientists can study the asteroids around them, so they are very busy.
"According to the data we have obtained so far, we can reversely infer that more than 3 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 Mars."
"However, as time went by, when the mass of Jupiter continued to increase, its mass slowly became the second largest in the solar system after Mars. Its strong gravity, coupled with the huge gravity of Mars, at a certain moment, when the three planets were in a line, the huge gravity pulled."
"Bang! The planet was broken into pieces and became the asteroid belt it is now. Countless fragments continued to spread in the void, relying on inertia to form an asteroid belt similar to an orbit."
Astronomers Tang Boyuan and Dong Zhifei who came with the "Ocean" spacecraft were using supercomputers to simulate the development history of the solar system.
The oldest star in the solar system is naturally the sun, which has a long history of more than 5 billion years, and as a yellow dwarf, the sun's life span will be as long as 10 billion years, so the sun is just in middle age at this time.
The life span of the earth is about 4.6 billion years, and its history is also very long. Of course, it has been a dead planet in its long history. Only about 635 million years ago did the earliest complex structure organisms begin to appear on the earth, and the existence history of microorganisms will be longer.
The history of human beings on the earth is even shorter. It was about 50 million years ago that early humans slowly appeared. According to the research of scientists, in the history of human evolution, many kinds of people appeared at the same time at a certain period. The difference between these races is not the difference between yellow people, black people, and white people.
Now these three kinds of people can usually reproduce with each other, but in fact, they can only be regarded as one kind of race. In the development process of the earth's history, several races have appeared, and they can't reproduce with each other at all, just like the difference between tigers and lions.
Of course, in the end, our ancestors Homo sapiens gained the right to rule, and other races gradually disappeared. As for how they disappeared, I think everyone should know that the fittest survive.
Therefore, scientists are very keen on studying the history of the earth and the solar system, because only by knowing the history, that is, knowing yesterday, can we cherish the present and survive better in the future.
"Ding Di~" When Dong Zhifei, who was responsible for monitoring the surrounding planetary bodies, heard this sound, he knew that the detector must have discovered another large celestial body, and he looked over quickly.
"This is Ceres!" Dong Zhifei compared the discovered large planet with all the known planets, and immediately knew that the asteroid was Ceres.
Ceres is the smallest dwarf planet in the solar system and the only one located in the asteroid belt. It was discovered by Italian astronomer Piazzi and announced on January 1, 1801. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union redefined Ceres as a dwarf planet. Ceres was once considered the largest known asteroid in the solar system.
Simply put, the identity of Ceres has always been controversial internationally. Just like Pluto, it was initially positioned as the same as the eight planets. Later, with the understanding of the universe, it was downgraded to a dwarf planet.
Ceres was initially considered the largest asteroid, but later, with in-depth research on it, astronomers upgraded it and classified it into the dwarf planet sequence, which is the same level as Pluto.
"Ceres found, Ceres found!"
The dull spacecraft was detonated by this news!
Ceres is one of the main targets of this scientific expedition. As the largest asteroid discovered in the asteroid belt, it is even positioned as a dwarf planet by the latest astronomical international conference because it is basically circular and has a stable orbit around the sun, but it has not cleared other asteroids in its orbit.
The most important thing is that Ceres is not only the largest star in the asteroid belt, but more importantly, according to previous observations, there should be a lot of water resources on Ceres.
Another important purpose is to find out the mysterious white bright spot on Ceres. What is this thing!
"Ceres is now at a speed of 16 kilometers per second, with an orbital radius of 412 million kilometers. It is in a state of decline, and its speed is increasing slightly!"
"Currently 4,239 kilometers away from Ceres!"
...
"Finally found Ceres, I thought it was hidden in that corner!" Li Fu hurried over after receiving the news. Ceres is one of the important targets of this scientific expedition, but after more than ten days in the asteroid belt, no trace of it has been found. It is really a master of playing hide-and-seek.
"Don't talk about Ceres. Scientists first derived it with a formula, and then scientists focused on observing it in 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 well.
"Oh, there is such a story? Tell me about it!" Li Fu was interested as soon as he heard it.
"Yeah, I'm bored anyway, tell me about it to relieve my boredom!" Others were also very interested. There was really nothing to do in space, especially when flying, listening to stories was also a good way to relieve boredom.
In 1766, a German middle school teacher named Johann Titius was studying a set of number series. He found that each term of this series was related to the distance ratio of the six known planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) to the sun (the distance from the earth to the sun was set as 1 astronomical unit).
Titius' friend, astronomer Bode, knew the significance of this discovery and announced Titius' discovery in 1772. Since then, this series of numbers has attracted great attention from scientists; and it is called the Titius-Bode law, that is, the average distance between the solar system planets and the sun.
At that time, people had not yet discovered Uranus and Neptune, and thought that Saturn was the farthest planet from the sun.
In 1781, the British-German Herschel discovered Uranus at a position close to 19.6 AU (the eighth term in the sequence), and since then, people have believed in this rule.
According to this rule, at the position of 2.8 in the fifth term of the sequence, which is the asteroid belt where we are now, there should also be a planet, but it has not been discovered yet. Therefore, many astronomers and astronomy enthusiasts embarked on the journey of finding this new planet with great enthusiasm.
On New Year's Eve in 1801, Italian priest Giuseppe Piazzi was still concentrating on observing the starry sky. Suddenly, he found a very small star in the telescope, which was exactly at the position of 2.8 in the Titius-Bode rule. The planet kept changing its position during the observation period of several days.
However, when Piazzi wanted to observe the asteroid further, he fell ill. When he recovered and wanted to find the asteroid again, it was nowhere to be found. Piazzi did not give up this opportunity. He thought it might be the planet that people had not discovered.
Astronomers have different opinions on Piazzi's discovery. Some people think Piazzi is right; others think it may be a comet. There are many opinions about this planet, and the astronomical community is discussing it.
A few months have passed, and the debate has not been resolved. However, this debate has attracted the attention of the German mathematician Gauss. Gauss thought, since astronomers can't find Ceres through observation, then, can it be found through mathematical methods? Many astronomers disagree with Gauss's proposal.
Astronomers can't find Ceres, can Gauss still calculate it? Friends also advised him not to waste his time and talents on this hopeless problem.
The young Gauss had his own views. He believed that astronomy is inseparable from mathematics. Without strong mathematical knowledge, it is impossible to become an outstanding astronomer. This is also the case in the history of astronomy. Kepler discovered the three laws of planetary motion with his mathematical talent; Newton discovered the law of universal gravitation with his profound mathematical knowledge.
On the night of December 31, 1801, German astronomy enthusiast Olbers pointed his telescope at the sky at the time predicted by Gauss. As expected, Ceres appeared miraculously again!
Gauss's calculation method was successful. The planet that Gauss found from the tip of his pen became the best New Year's gift for mankind after hiding 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, young scientists bowed their heads and pondered!
"Compared with the persistence and perseverance of senior scientists, I think we are still too impetuous!" Li Fu thought for a long time and expressed everyone's thoughts.
The group of scientists of Fuyun Group has now achieved extremely brilliant achievements, but all of this is based on the various auxiliary tools provided by Li Fu. Practicing Yuanli improves everyone's brain development, so that everyone can better understand the difficulties encountered in scientific exploration.
Providing 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 and not as persistent as their predecessors.
It can be imagined that if the people of Fuyun Group were placed in the historical conditions of their predecessors, they would definitely not be able to study one thing for decades or even a lifetime like their predecessors.
Although the shortcut has created the glory of Fuyun Group, it has also made everyone slowly lose the qualities of persistence and perseverance that scientists should have. This is not good for the future development of science and technology. Sometimes taking detours, suffering a little, and encountering some hardships and setbacks is a good thing!
Hearing Li Fu's emotion, the scientists of Fuyun Group far away on Earth also fell into deep thought. When they encounter problems and difficulties, they usually rely on Li Fu instead of settling down to study wholeheartedly!
"It seems that we still have to let everyone suffer more in the future!"
Li Fu muttered to himself after knowing it.
You should know that in the early scientific research, there were no computers, so many data statistics and analyses all needed to be calculated manually. Scientific predecessors used pens on paper to calculate again and again and slowly explored various scientific truths. Think about the advanced mathematics we have learned. Just looking at it makes people dizzy, not to mention the continuous research and calculation.
And there are many, many things that rely on self-exploration, not only scientific truths, but also too many, too many major discoveries in the history of mathematical development. These discoveries are all slowly explored by mathematical predecessors.
Mathematics is the most important subject in science today, and it is also the foundation of modern science. Almost all sciences cannot do without the application of mathematical knowledge!
Of course, with the assistance of computers now, scientists do not need to hold a pen in their hands and perform complex calculations on paper over and over again when calculating complex data like their predecessors. The super computing power of supercomputers allows scientists to calculate the results in a very short time.
But it is also easy for scientists to gradually lose the persistence of their predecessors in exploring scientific truth. In scientific exploration, many things actually need to be explored over and over again, tirelessly, in order to discover the scientific truth on the surface of complex matters.
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 to quickly walk out of the earth and into the interstellar universe, but whether it is really useful to force the growth of seedlings, and whether we will slowly lose the long-standing scientific exploration spirit.
But if I don’t lead the development of science and technology, it may take a long time to walk out of the earth at the speed of technological development on the earth, and it is even more unknown how long it will take to walk out of the solar system.
There are too many vast universes and powerful civilizations. The earthlings have been able to develop steadily for so many years, and they are still lucky. Of course, it may also be because the location of the earth is too remote. But no matter what, it is best to hold your own destiny in your own hands.
There are too many things worth thinking about, especially for Li Fu to think about and think deeply.
PS: Get up at 6 o'clock in the morning to type, haha. The speed is so fast, please vote!