The vast starry sky in the universe is vast and boundless. No one knows where the end of the starry sky is. Compared with it, everything seems extremely small and insignificant.
In a dark, gloomy, cold place, with a hint of eternal aura, the calm and unrippled sky suddenly began to ripple, like water waves.
Soon, the ripples became bigger and bigger, and slowly a colorful light point appeared, and soon it slowly fainted, and in the blink of an eye, it turned into a colorful and radiant space-time channel.
From the space-time channel, a huge figure of a space battleship flew out quickly. The battleship was brightly lit, like a huge temple from the depths of the starry sky.
As the spacecraft flew out, the space-time wormhole slowly and rapidly shrank, and disappeared in the blink of an eye. The fluctuations in the void gradually calmed down, as if nothing had happened, and only
This huge space battleship in the dark void is as eye-catching as a firefly in the dark starry sky.
On the 'Explorer' space battleship, everyone who had finished their warp flight began to become busy. Various detectors were launched in all directions in order to control the surrounding void and ensure their own safety.
At the same time, the various detectors carried on the space battleship are all turned on, continuously receiving various information from the void of the universe.
As a space astronomy scientist, Cao Yadong is the busiest. After every warp flight, he has to reposition the space battleship, and then re-correct the coordinate parameters of the spacecraft based on the received information.
The starry sky in the universe is really too vast. When you are in the void, there is no distinction between front, back, left, right, up and down, so it is easy for a spacecraft to get lost when flying at warp speed in the starry sky.
Especially as the space battleship gets further and further away from the solar system, and as the warp engine becomes more and more powerful and can jump farther distances at once, the probability of getting lost will become greater and greater.
The role of a space astronomy scientist is equivalent to the compass on a spaceship or battleship, constantly gathering the received starlight to draw a more complete and detailed star path, positioning the spacecraft, correcting coordinate parameters, etc., to prevent it from being lost in the void of the universe.
Get lost.
"It is 88 light years away from the solar system."
Cao Yadong and his team calculated their current location very quickly. After several months of sailing, they had left the solar system a full 88 light-years away.
"Draw the latest star map!"
Cao Yadong's mind was connected to the virtual world, and a star map appeared in his mind. This star map was drawn by Xinghan Universe astronomy scientists after a long period of observation, and it is also an indispensable thing for interstellar navigation.
Star atlases are different from traditional geographical atlases or celestial photos. Star atlases are drawings that accurately describe or draw the lasting features in the night sky, such as stars, constellations of stars, the Milky Way, nebulae, star clusters and other extragalactic galaxies, so they are also called
"Map of the Stars".
Traditional maps are drawn based on geographical features, such as large rivers, mountains, lakes, etc., which are all important reference objects on traditional maps.
Of course, relying on modern scientific and technological means, drawing traditional maps can be very accurate, but in ancient times, drawing maps required important landmarks.
The same is true for star maps. In layman's terms, a star map is a map of the stars. It includes all the stars that scientists can observe, and uses these stars to draw a star map.
Some people may say that the stars all look exactly the same and there is no difference at all. How can we rely on the stars to identify directions, perform positioning and navigation, etc.?
In fact, every star in the starry sky is completely different.
A star is a star, a neutron star, a comet, a white dwarf, and other celestial objects in the universe. The distance, mass, intensity of light, etc. of these celestial objects are completely different.
Stars that look exactly the same to our naked eyes and seem to have no difference are completely different in the eyes of astronomical scientists. It is even difficult to find two identical stars.
The composition of the star chart takes advantage of this.
Because each star is different, scientists can use these stars to navigate, locate, and calculate their detailed positions.
This is a star map, a map made of stars.
Of course, in the star map of star structure, the only things that can be used as pointing indicators are neutron stars and pulsars in the starry sky of the universe.
Neutron stars are the densest stars in the universe besides black holes. They are also evolved from stars. Most pulsars are neutron stars, but neutron stars are not necessarily pulsars. Only those with pulses are considered pulsars.
Because of their large mass and high density, neutron stars have many very special characteristics. One of them is that some neutron stars have the characteristic of pulses. This pulsar is the brightest star in the universe and is the easiest target to discover.
, naturally equivalent to mountains, rivers, etc. in traditional maps, are very important coordinate references.
In addition, the energy radiation of neutron stars is millions of times that of the sun. Such huge energy radiation is like a lighthouse in the vast void. It is very dazzling. Astronomers can know it at a glance.
Therefore, in a star map, the most important things are neutron stars and pulsars, because these two stars are beacons, reference objects, and the brightest stars in the universe.
As for other stars, or star clouds, or constellations, etc., as the position moves, it is very likely that it will be difficult to observe, or there will be some changes, making it more difficult to find. If they are used as a reference, they will not be used as a reference.
Not very accurate.
Xinghan's cosmic astronomy science has gone through a long period of observation and recording. Observations were made in multiple planetary systems in Xinghan, and a vast star map containing hundreds of billions of stars, thousands of neutron stars, and pulsars was drawn.
picture.
It is precisely by relying on this star map that the 'Explorer' spacecraft will not get lost in the starry sky when flying in the void of the universe, and can always find its way home.
"A brand new neutron star was discovered, located in the center of the Milky Way, about 7,230 light-years away from us."
Whenever astronomers arrive at a new place, the first thing they do is to observe the starry sky where they are, collect information about the stars in the sky, and then integrate it with the existing huge star map to complete the star map.
Continuous improvement.
"The sun is now just a faint star."
Cao Yadong looked in the direction of the solar system. The sun is the most ordinary thing in the universe. It neither shines nor flashes. It is very ordinary and has nothing outstanding about it.
When looking at the solar system from a distance of 88 light years, the sun's light is very weak, so weak that it is even necessary to use a cosmic telescope to observe the existence of the sun.
"The farther you fly towards the Milky Way, the greater the density of the stars. As expected, most of the matter in the Milky Way is concentrated in the central area of the Milky Way. I really want to go to the Milky Way.
Take a look at the center. The stars here should be extremely bright and dazzling. It is estimated that the distance between stars is only a few dozen astronomical units."
Cao Yadong carefully looked at the various information received. He was constantly observing along the way, and he gradually discovered a pattern.
The closer it is to the center of the Milky Way, the greater the density of stars. This also verifies an inference that scientists have long had because of the huge attraction of the black hole at the core of the Milky Way.
Most of the matter in the Milky Way is concentrated in the central region of the Milky Way. As for the Orion Cantilever where the solar system is located, the proportion of matter occupied by the cantilevers of the Milky Way is very small.
Therefore, scientists have made many reasonable inferences and conjectures, and now they have verified this inference. The farther toward the Milky Way, the greater the density of stars observed.
"According to inference, there are not only black holes in the center of the Milky Way. The Milky Way is so huge, but it is very stable. In addition to the core black hole, there should also be small black holes on the cantilevers of the Milky Way."
"The black hole in the center of the Milky Way dominates the entire Milky Way, and the small black holes play a role in stabilizing the Milky Way. However, so far we have not found the existence of a black hole in the Orion Cantilever. Is this inference wrong?"
Soon, Cao Yadong also remembered a conclusion calculated and inferred by scientists in the Xinghan Universe astronomy community using super quantum computers.
Through a large number of observations, scientists have inferred on this basis that there is more than one black hole in the Milky Way. The black hole in the center of the Milky Way is a massive black hole that dominates the entire Milky Way.
In addition to the large black hole in the middle, there are also small black holes in the cantilevers of the Milky Way and in the satellite galaxies of the outer Milky Way, such as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.
It is precisely under the joint control and efforts of these large and small black holes that the entire Milky Way can operate stably, forming a huge Milky Way.
This time, the spacecraft that went out to explore actually also had the purpose of scientific research. For astronomical scientists, one of their important tasks is to find the small black hole on the Orion cantilever, so as to verify the scientists' inferences about the Milky Way.