In Room 403 on the 5th floor of the North Campus, the night breeze blew on the balcony, and in the dark night a few stars were as beautiful and bright as pearls.
A tall and thin figure stood in front of the balcony. He half raised his head and looked at the stars in the sky. He seemed to be listening to wonderful music, sometimes shaking his head and sometimes closing his eyes and smiling. His name is Yang Zhou and he comes from the imperial capital. On his left hand side was a 300mm Newtonian reflecting telescope. The lens barrel was silver-white and made of aluminum alloy. A small tripod held the long lens barrel steadily, like a funny short tube. The legged aliens also look into the deep space of the Milky Way.
Pan Tianyi gently approached the dormitory. The other roommates had not returned yet and seemed very quiet. He stood quietly on the balcony and looked in the direction the lens tube pointed. There were three relatively bright stars in the southern sky, namely Deneb, Altair, and Vega.
"Pan Tianyi, look at the telescope I bought online!" Yang Zhou heard the sound and came back to reality from his distant imagination, his face filled with joy.
"I have never seen such a large-diameter telescope. Can I use it to observe the starry sky?" Pan Tianyi tried to ask with deep envy and curiosity.
"Of course! This is something my father bought for me abroad. Some spare parts are not available in China yet, so be careful!" Yang Zhou was both excited and worried.
"No problem!" Pan Tianyi dismissed his concerns, "What does your father do? I envy you!" Pan Tianyi carefully held the telescope, pointed his eyes at the tube and looked at the distant stars.
"My father is engaged in high-energy physics research at CERN. He has been there for almost 20 years, but he has never published important papers in his core work. It is said that it is difficult for Chinese scientists to be trusted by foreign institutions. Some core high-energy scientists They don't let you get into physical experiments at all! So no matter how outstanding your academic paper is, you won't get the chance to be verified in scientific practice..." Yang Zhou became more and more angry as he spoke, "Our country has also invested a lot of money in the European Nuclear Research Project. , due to the severe technological blockade and racial prejudice against our country, these huge financial investments are black holes with no return. My father, along with a group of Chinese scientists, plans to return to China for development and try to explore the implementation of high-energy particle accelerators. feasibility.”
"Then your father is really a great scientist. Being able to return to the motherland to develop and contribute his strength and wisdom to the revitalization of the Chinese nation is the hope of the motherland and the people!" Pan Tian put down his observation and turned to look at Yang Zhou who was aside. , I saw his face full of joy and longing.
"By the way, what did you see with the telescope? Did you observe the brightest star in the constellation Cygnus?" Yang Zhou changed the subject and looked at Pan Tianyi excitedly.
"I saw a few brighter stars. Is there anything special about them?" Pan Tianyi was puzzled. "Among them, the Cowherd and the Vega are more familiar. When I was a child, I heard my mother tell beautiful legends about them."
"Look at the three stars in the sky. Among them, Deneb is located at the tail of Cygnus, aligned with several brighter stars. This is the long neck of Cygnus, facing from east to west, with its head The top seems to be falling towards the northwest horizon; there are a few relatively bright stars in the direction perpendicular to this line, which are the wings of Cygnus, and Vega is on the upper side of its wings." Yang Zhou explained to Pan Tianyi in detail own cognition.
"Listening to what you said, I seem to be able to distinguish the constellation Cygnus." Pan Tianyi quietly observed the starry sky there, with a slight upward smile on his lips, "These nebulae seem to be pregnant with tens of thousands of stars. I don't know which ones." There are extraterrestrial civilizations in the star system..." Pan Tianyi came up with an idea inexplicably.
"Alien civilization has not been discovered by human scientists yet," Yang Zhou pondered for a moment, "but the Harvard Astronomical Telescope observed in the Cygnus constellation that there are about a hundred stars with planets orbiting them. Among them, the star Xi Zhong IV It is a three-star system about 70 light-years away from the Earth. There is an Earth-like planet called Gliese, which is almost the same mass as Jupiter in the solar system. It is in the habitable zone of the star and is likely to be suitable for human settlement."
"But how do humans immigrate there? The Voyager has been in the solar system for nearly 40 years, and it has not left the Oort cloud yet?" Pan Tianyi carefully observed the open star clusters there, with a strange surprise on his face, "I In the Cygnus star region, several weird planetary nebulae and several supernova explosion remnants were discovered! Maybe there was a flash of civilization there! When I was a child, I heard from my mother that the Emperor and Queen Mother of Heaven got angry and drew a line between Vega and Altair, blocking them. The love marriage between the Cowherd and the Heavenly Lady! That line may be the neutron star produced by the supernova explosion. The gamma ray burst at the poles of the neutron star swept across the void, destroying the two advanced civilizations in that star area! It became a piece of dust in the starry sky..."
Pan Tianyi's mood fluctuated for a moment, turning into a hoarse low.
"Brother! You are so imaginative!" Yang Zhou was amazed, looking at the thin boy in front of him with a hint of admiration, "According to what you said, human civilization is indeed very small and humble in the universe. If a malicious extraterrestrial civilization invades the earth, then with the current technological power of human beings, we may not even be as good as bugs in the eyes of aliens!"
Yang Zhou looked into the deep space with a look of confusion and fear, this time without the reverie and smile he had before.
"Haha, I'm so happy to communicate with you. Maybe we think too much and go too far. Let's live the present moment and fulfill our current responsibilities! Leave those issues to the United Nations Defense Center to consider..." Pan Tianyi laughed. , showing an inexplicable affection towards Yang Zhou.
"Tianyi, if humans one day realize interstellar travel, how should we determine our coordinates in the starry sky in the vast universe?" Yang Zhou looked blankly at the night sky, "On the large scale of the Milky Way and even the Andromeda Galaxy, if it were easy to go out, Then when we return and find the Earth in the Milky Way, it is as difficult to measure and find as the number of sands in the Ganges!"
"Just like the first great voyage of mankind, we need courage to explore the unknown." Pan Tianyi looked at the lights on the rooftops in the distance, and his thoughts seemed to touch the depths of his consciousness, "Perhaps, a lighthouse needs to be built in the sea!"
"If the neutron star itself generates a strong magnetic field, it will form an intermittent pulse wave when it rotates. This is the lighthouse effect of the pulsar!"
Yang Zhou once again stared at the starry sky with his delighted eyes, as if a boat sailing in the sea suddenly had a direction.
"Interstellar Lighthouse!"
"Yes, all pulsars in the Milky Way have a stable rotation period, and their coordinate positions are stored in a computer database. In this way, the spacecraft has established an interstellar navigation and positioning system, and there are many lighthouses in the vast Milky Way! In the future, humans on earth will no longer be bound by confusion..."
Yang Zhou seemed to have a deep understanding and wrote a string of words on his notepad: China Sky Eye Fast Project and my mission.
In October 2008, China Sky Eye Fast project entered the preliminary design stage and received strong support from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Science and Technology.
"By the way, Pan Tianyi. Our school is preparing to hold the National College Mecha Master Competition next month. Our Intelligent Mecha Master Club has begun to prepare for the preliminary selection. Therefore, every member of the club has a long way to go and learn and strengthen professional knowledge. Practice skills." Yang Zhou walked to the coffee machine in the dormitory, filled two cups, and handed one to Pan Tianyi.
"Thank you!" Pan Tianyi thanked him, "I heard something a few days ago that our school has not been able to win the championship in the past three years and is many places behind the universities in the same province!"
"Yes, you are right. The school's reputation outside the past two years has not been recognized by the society!" Yang Zhou deeply felt the same. "I heard from senior Zhang Yanan that the school leaders attach great importance to this year's National College Mecha Master Competition and specially selected foreign students from abroad. We invited Professor Boris, an artificial intelligence expert. It is said that he had served as a robot tactical deduction consultant in a Western European military organization and had great experience in mecha combat skills. Later, he had the opportunity to meet my father and asked my father for advice. He talked about many issues about high-energy materials and nuclear energy. Because his country was caught in the political competition between major powers, national divisions quickly spread with the development of war conflicts. He hated war very much, and the war almost caused him to lose his life. Beautiful home and lovely relatives! So he came to country C with a heart of peace and hope to seek stable development, hoping that one day he can use his own way to save his chaotic country."
"Well, I seem to have met him a few days ago. I have his business card." Pan Tianyi happily took out a thin business card and handed it to Yang Zhou to show him, "Does Professor Boris have any hobbies? Another day If you have a chance, go visit him and ask for advice.”
"You are so lucky, God is blessing you! Although my father and he are old friends, I have only seen him in person, not even his business card." Yang Zhou laughed at himself and habitually scratched the back of his head with his hand. Helpless look.
"Why does Professor Boris care about high-energy materials and nuclear energy issues?" Pan Tianyi thought, "Did he encounter any problems with mechas?"
"Haha, the current artificial intelligence technology is only in its infancy," Yang Zhou said, taking a sip of coffee. "The energy required for unmanned tanks on the battlefield and other artificial intelligence comes from electromagnetic energy! But these are also It’s enough to satisfy the mecha’s power energy system. If you install a micro-controllable nuclear fusion energy device on your mecha, it would be a wishful thinking for humans right now!”
"In the future, maybe it can be realized..."
Pan Tianyi looked at the Great Triangle star in the autumn night sky and remained silent; he gently blew up the coffee foam in the cup and took a sip to taste the bitterness mixed with a touch of sweetness.
The noisy play in the dormitory corridor broke the short-term tranquility of the dormitory.
Geng Qiankun walked into the dormitory wearing a pair of glasses and smiling, followed by a fat man Li Zhengjian.
"What a feast for the eyes tonight, guess what big news happened in our school?" Li Zhengjian said as he looked at Yang Zhou and Pan Tianyi with a sly smile on his face.
"Sh-"
Geng Qiankun hurriedly stopped Li Zhengjian from making the news public, "The fewer people who know about this, the better. This will save us multiple competitors in the future and less opportunities!"
"Come on, stop being narcissistic!"
Li Zhengjian dismissed his narcissism, "There are only a few people in our dormitory, and they are not outsiders. I would be most happy to share this beautiful thing!"
"Okay, then tell them"
Geng Qiankun turned around with a groan, looked at it in a small mirror, smoothed his long hair, and admired himself.
"Look..." Li Zhengjian excitedly took out his widescreen mobile phone, "Isn't this foreign girl beautiful? I took the photo in the cafe tonight!"
"Are you cheating again? This is obviously a character wallpaper downloaded from the game!"
Pan Tianyi took a cursory glance at his phone: "It looks like that Holy Light Elf. The day before yesterday, he said it looked like our class counselor. Just keep talking nonsense!"
Yang Zhou came over and looked at the photos on his phone carefully: "I didn't expect foreign girls to be so smart and beautiful! I've never seen them before!"
"Look, you still don't believe me when I say Pan Tianyi!"
Li Zhengjian said anxiously, "It is said that as long as we join the Foreign Students Exchange Association, we will have the opportunity to become her companion students! In other words, we will have a better chance of contacting this beautiful girl and even develop her into our girlfriend. It’s possible! Haha…”
"Okay, look at your sexy bear look!"
Geng Qiankun interjected in dissatisfaction, "Everyone in our dormitory except you has a chance to become her boyfriend."
"Okay, how do I sign up for that club?"
Yang Zhou was a little curious, "Pan Tianyi and I really want to get into the circle of foreign students, communicate more, and improve our spoken English... Haha"
"It's very simple, brother, I have information and methods!"
Li Zhengjian looked at Yang Zhou with a malicious smile, and the black spots on his face seemed to be beating a few times, "Tomorrow night, form a team with me and play an all-night game, and beat the opponent! I will take you to participate in that SICA Exchange Association, pick up more foreign girls! Haha..."
"OK!"
"Brother, I obey you!"
"It's a deal!"
