According to current theory, the upper limit of the mass of a planet is about 13 times the mass of Jupiter.
Once the mass of a planet exceeds this value, its weight is enough to trigger deuteron fusion, thus becoming a low-mass brown dwarf and falling out of the category of a planet.
Jupiter's mass is only about one thousandth that of the Sun.
In other words, the maximum mass of a planet can reach about one percent of the sun at most, and if it is higher, it will fuse and evolve into a sub-star.
Xu Chuan said that there is an error in the calculated mass. Let's estimate it based on the calculation error of Betelgeuse's mass. The current mass of Betelgeuse calculated by the astronomical community is about 11.6 to 16.6 times that of the sun. If the conditions are slightly relaxed, the mass will be maintained.
Between 10-20 solar masses.
This number between masses is calculated through traditional observation methods. Although it is not accurate, there is no problem in using it as a reference.
The mass of Betelgeuse 23.m⊙ calculated through the xu-weyl-berry mass calculation equation is calculated according to the maximum deviation amplitude, which is 23.87 to 10. The mass deviation amplitude ratio is 2.3, close to 2.4.
The mass of the companion star is calculated by the formula to be 2.7 solar masses, so even based on the maximum deviation amplitude ratio, the mass of the companion star is more than one sun.
So as long as it is confirmed that this companion star really exists, then according to the calculated data, it must be a star.
There is a companion star in Betelgeuse's hydrogen envelope. This has always been just a speculation in the astronomical community, and there is no evidence to prove it.
But today’s incredible speculation is likely to come true.
More importantly, the diameter and mass of Betelgeuse and its companion stars were calculated, which made Liu Xuan sigh.
Changes in the astronomical world may be coming.
If it can be proven that this young junior’s calculation equation can accurately calculate the mass of stars, then the law of universal gravitation, the mass-light relationship method, Kepler’s third law of planetary motion, and the gravitational red shift method will basically be eliminated.
Lose.
For the astronomical community, this was a radical change in the underlying calculation method, and he didn't know how much of a sensation it would cause.
.........
After completing the mass calculation of Betelgeuse in southern Yunnan, Xu Chuan did not leave. He planned to go to Qinghai with several seniors from the Department of Astronomy.
On the one hand, the calculation can be directly performed after the data comes out.
On the other hand, you can chat with the astronomy experts at the Qinghai Astronomical Observatory about Betelgeuse.
His scientific research intuition told him that the reason why the first set of observation data resulted in two sets of extremely deviating data was probably because Betelgeuse had a companion star.
If there really is a star more massive than the sun in Betelgeuse's hydrogen envelope, what impact it will have on it is something that must be clarified.
After all, Betelgeuse has reached its old age and may explode as a supernova at any time in the future.
Whether the companion star will affect its magnetic poles during the supernova explosion is very critical.
Because from a cosmic scale, Betelgeuse is too close to the earth.
More than six hundred light years, it is an insurmountable chasm in the eyes of humans, but if the magnetic pole changes and the burst of Gamma ray burst is aimed at the solar system, then...
.......
Qinghai, Qinghai Astronomical Observatory.
Xu Chuan stood on the roof of the observatory and looked at the large radio telescope in the distance. There was a radio telescope array at work, collecting information about Betelgeuse, which is 640 light-years away.
In one more day, the data he needs will be collected.
Unlike traditional optical telescopes, radio telescopes receive radio waves and can capture a lot of light that is invisible to the naked eye, while optical telescopes can only capture visible light.
Therefore, radio telescopes can see light with wavelengths many times shorter than that of optical telescopes, and can also see some details that optical telescopes cannot.
For example, the polarization of stars, cosmic microwave background radiation, etc., are all things that cannot be seen with optical telescopes.
In addition, optical telescopes are heavily affected by weather. Cloudy days, haze, and light pollution will all cause optical telescopes to lose sensitivity.
The radio telescope does not. The wavelength it observes is mainly 30m-1mm. The electromagnetic waves of this wavelength will not be affected by the weather.
Therefore, radio telescopes can penetrate clouds and are not affected by meteorological conditions. They can observe during the day and night, and have the ability to work around the clock. In addition, the observed radiation has a long wavelength and is not blocked by interstellar and galaxy dust clouds, thus greatly expanding human capabilities.
The scope of observation of the universe.
These are the advantages of radio telescopes.
But relatively speaking, radio telescopes also have weaknesses. First of all, their images are processed by computers, and what they see is not the true appearance of celestial objects.
Secondly, the accuracy of radio telescopes is actually far inferior to that of optical telescopes.
Despite its lofty name, its accuracy is actually much lower than that of traditional optical telescopes.
The resolving power of an optical telescope with a diameter of 10 centimeters can reach about 1.4 points, and it can clearly see details of 2 kilometers on the lunar surface.
The largest movable radio telescope in the world is the Germanic 100-meter-diameter movable radio telescope, but its resolving power is only 33 points.
This number is not comparable to the 30 points of the human eye.
In other words, the human eye can see the moon more clearly than it can see the moon.
However, radio telescopes can operate online, that is, two or more radio telescopes receive radio waves from the same celestial body and interfere with multiple beams. The equivalent resolution can be up to that of a single telescope with an aperture equivalent to the distance between the two places.
aperture radio telescope.
This is a huge advantage that optical telescopes cannot achieve.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! But in terms of accuracy, it is a fact that it cannot compare with optical telescopes.
Therefore, generally speaking, radio telescopes and optical telescopes are complementary. Both can observe a target at the same time, and then the data complement each other to obtain more comprehensive information.
This is the method he used to collect information about Betelgeuse this time.
The optical telescopes of the school and southern Yunnan are used for optical observations, and the radio telescope array of Qinghai is used to supplement the data to obtain comprehensive data.
.......
The day passed quickly. In the early morning of the sixth day, the array radio telescope stopped working, and the collected data was sent to the computing center for processing, which took about a few hours.
For Xu Chuan and several senior fellow students at Nanda, this period of time was undoubtedly very difficult.
The data collected by the radio telescope in the past forty-eight hours is crucial. On the one hand, the comprehensive data can be used to more accurately calculate the diameter, mass, volume and other information of parameter four.
This is used to determine whether the xu-weyl-berry calculation equation has the ability to accurately calculate stars in the distant universe.
This is of great significance to the astronomical community.
If more accurate values of distant stars can be obtained, people can infer more information based on them.
For example, which stage of life the star is in, whether it is stable enough, whether there are other planets suitable for survival around it, whether there are other intelligent races, etc.
In addition, it also has a considerable impact on the research of basic physics and high-energy physics.
Scientific progress requires a large number of experiments to verify hypotheses. In today's era, many theories can only be verified by experiments under extreme conditions such as high energy and high magnetic fields.
Therefore, Europe will build a huge particle accelerator LHC, but even so, there are still many problems that cannot be solved in earth laboratories.
Many astrophysical phenomena in the universe, such as pulsars, supernova explosions, and quasar accretion, naturally provide physical processes under extremely high energy conditions.
Observing these astronomical phenomena can help people test theories.
Whether it is relativity or quantum theory, there are a large number of viewpoints that require astronomical phenomena to prove.
It's just that these things are too far away from the current progress and development of mankind and science and technology. These things are at the forefront of theory, so even if they are discovered, they will not bring much scientific and technological progress in a short time.
This is very similar to mathematical physics. Top mathematical physics are already studying things for the next few decades, hundreds, or even hundreds of years.
No one knows how long it will take for those cutting-edge theoretical results to be transformed into scientific research results.
I don’t even know if it can be turned into scientific and technological achievements.
Many people will be confused. What is the use of these theories, mathematics, physics and astronomy?
Just like you don’t need calculus to buy groceries, so what if you can now observe Betelgeuse’s data? Can you fly there?
Just like when Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction, he was once dismissed as useless waste.
But without his theory, human beings would still be burning coal, boiling water and using steam engines. Today’s lights are so bright that no one can see them.
There are always people who need to do these jobs, and one of them must be at the forefront of theory or technology, and most of the time, it is theory that is at the forefront.
Without theoretical advancement, science and technology cannot progress.
Perhaps what seems useless today will become the most important thing in the next ten or decades.
...
"The preliminary calculation of the observation data of the Sichuan, Sichuan Shen, radio telescope array is completed."
In the office, Xu Chuan was perfecting the xu-weyl-berry calculation equation in his hand. Suddenly, the office door was pushed open with a bang, and then a gasping voice sounded in the office.
Xu Chuan's eyes lit up, he stood up quickly and said, "Where are the data."
"Senior Brother Liu Xuan and the others are undergoing secondary sorting. I came here to inform you in advance to prepare. It will take about four or five hours."
Xu Chuan nodded and said, "Take me over and have a look."
At this point, he was not in the mood to continue improving the xu-weyl-berry calculation equation. This could be done at any time, but the observation data from the radio telescope was related to the results of this research experiment.
.......
At Qinghai Astronomical Observatory, Xu Chuan followed the senior brother who reported to him to the computing center.
There is a small supercomputer here, and the data observed by radio telescopes outside will be processed here. The observation data of Betelgeuse will naturally be processed here.
It's just that the data processed by the computer is still a little different from the data he needs, which requires several doctoral students in the astronomy department to process it again.
The data after secondary simplification is what he needs.
"Senior Brother Liu, how is the situation?" Xu Chuan walked up to Senior Brother Liu Xuan who was leading the team and asked.
In front of the display screen, Liu Xuan looked up at Xu Chuan and replied: "It's still being analyzed, because this is the first time that there may be an astronomical phenomenon like a companion star in the hydrogen envelope of a star, and there is no corresponding data in the computer.
It is impossible to confirm, so currently we can only manually check the abnormal data item by item."
"You sit down for a moment while I finish this data."
After replying, he buried his head in front of the screen again.
Xu Chuan nodded and leaned slightly to look at the display screen on the table. On it were a series of graphs and various tables, as well as various astronomical units recording data.
He can understand some of these things. He spent more than half a month cramming them in order to convert the xu-weyl-berry calculation equation and apply it to astronomy.
After all, even if the xu-weyl-berry theorem can calculate star information, it still needs data such as eigenvalues, boundary values, and asymptotic information.
Which of the observed star data conforms to these needs to be verified by verification. It does not mean that you can just randomly put in any kind of information and calculate it casually.
........
Time passed bit by bit. In the computing center, several senior fellows from NTU and researchers from the Qinghai Astronomical Observatory worked together on secondary calculations to simplify the observation data of parameter four.
For Xu Chuan, who could only watch from the sidelines, this moment seemed extremely long.
I don’t know how much time passed, but suddenly, a figure stood up and shouted excitedly to Liu Xuan across the experimental table:
"Senior Brother Liu, I have found relatively abnormal data here, which is confirmed to be an abnormality in the observed radiation flux. I have made a similar comparison with the first set of data before, and it is suspected that it is adulterated with companion star data."