The Royal Astronomical Society initially served not scientific astronomers, but upper-class British gentlemen who had a certain love for astronomy.
Of course, there is no conflict between the two. Before Britain's productivity improved, observing the stars above with a telescope was indeed a hobby that only gentlemen and nobles with money and leisure could afford.
Burlington Palace, where the Royal Astronomical Society is located, is located on Piccadilly Street in the city center, close to Buckingham Palace and No. 10 Downing Street, the center of the UK.
If Eddington and Chen Muwu's destination was here, they could easily get to the city center after getting off the bus.
But Eddington had no intention of taking Chen Muwu to the Astronomical Society, so the two of them did not leave the station at all. Instead, they directly transferred to the North London Railway at King's Cross Station to London Bridge Station, and then transferred to the North London Railway Station. Suburban railway in Greenwich.
This railway is the first suburban railway built in London and the first elevated railway in the world built entirely in mid-air.
On this viaduct, which appeared in the world more than 90 years ago, sitting on a train pulled by a coal-burning locomotive, Chen Muwu felt a strong steampunk style.
After exiting Greenwich Railway Station, walk uphill to the Royal Observatory Greenwich, which is built on Greenwich Hill.
This place has not yet become a tourist attraction open to the public as it did in later generations. There are royal guards in military uniforms guarding both sides of the gate.
The reason why it is so heavily guarded is because thirty years ago, an attempted "international terrorism" attack occurred here, which was also the first time in British history.
A bomb was detonated in a park near the observatory. The French anarchist who carried the bomb died on the spot.
When a French anarchist goes to blow up British government institutions, does he want to destroy the government, or does he just want to destroy the British government?
Eddington took out his ID and waved it, and was quickly let through.
But when he arrived at Chen Muwu, even though Eddington came forward, his ID was checked over and over again by the guards. Finally, with suspicious eyes, Chen Muwu finally entered the gate of the observatory.
Unlike middle school geography books where we learned that the eastern and western hemispheres are divided by the two longitudes of 20 degrees west longitude and 160 degrees east longitude, people today still default to dividing the eastern and western hemispheres by the prime meridian plus the 180 degrees longitude.
When you come to Greenwich Observatory, the first thing you have to look at is naturally the Prime Meridian embedded in the ground.
Seeing this line, Chen Muwu also wanted to be like Fang Tangjing, jumping up and down on both sides of the prime meridian, shouting "I am in the Eastern Hemisphere!" and "I am in the Western Hemisphere!".
But the only rationality left in his brain and the calm character he had deliberately created all along prevented him from doing so.
Of course, in addition to this meridian, there is another attraction in Greenwich, which is the standard parts of various imperial length units inlaid on one wall.
Chen Muwu didn't even want to look at this ghost place, he even wanted to spit on it.
There is another iron rod standing on the roof of the observatory, with a red ball on the top of the iron rod.
The ball suddenly fell from the top and made a "bang" sound, which startled him.
I remember reading in a popular science magazine that this ball would fall on time at one o'clock every afternoon to tell the time to the ships on the lower Thames River.
"Mr. Eddington, our train journey looks very fast! We left Cambridge at ten in the morning and arrived at the Greenwich Observatory at one in the afternoon."
Eddington reluctantly took out his pocket watch, opened the cover and waved it towards Chen Muwu: "Actually, it's already two o'clock now. Mr. Chen, we don't have much time, so let's just go inside?"
There is no mention in popular science books that the ball will fall once at two o'clock. Chen Muwu, who made the mistake, blushed and could only follow Eddington into the observatory building and walked to a certain in front of an office.
However, this time, Eddington did not take off his hat and greet the gentleman with cumbersome etiquette like a gentleman.
After knocking on the door, he pushed Chen Muwu directly in without even waiting for the person inside to say the words "please come in."
"Sir, great discovery! We have observed Planet X!"
Eddington shouted loudly to the middle-aged man behind the desk.
Sir Frank Dyson, director of the Greenwich Observatory and currently the Astronomer Royal, who had a mustache like Rutherford, was behind his desk when he was startled by the sudden intrusion of two people.
Is it possible that the terrorists are back again?
After seeing clearly that one of the visitors was Eddington, Dyson's nervous mood had just calmed down a little.
Then, when he heard "Planet X" coming from Eddington's mouth again, his heart started beating again.
The above phenomenon can also show that light travels faster than sound.
After his brain fully accepted the information he saw and heard, Dyson understood why Eddington, who had always been gentle and gentle, behaved so recklessly this time. The "discovery of Planet X" was indeed a major discovery in astronomy. .
There was no time to introduce the young man behind him to Dyson. Eddington directly instructed Chen Muwu to place the photos taken these days and the piece of paper on which he calculated the orbit formula of Planet X on Dyson's desk.
After Eddington briefly explained it, Dyson felt that this time the Cambridge University Observatory might indeed have caught a big fish from the vast galaxy.
But astronomers all have a bad habit, that is, hearing is false and seeing is believing. Eddington was like this, and Dyson is no exception.
He first calmed down Eddington's excitement, and then he noticed Chen Muwu behind him: "Arthur, who is this gentleman?"
“Sir, this is Chen Muwu, who caused several waves in the physics world before, this time it’s Planet X;
"Chen, this is Sir Astronomer Royal, Director of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, Sir Dyson."
The person with the most powerful voice in British astronomy is not the President of the Royal Astronomical Society, but the Astronomer Royal.
This title will only be awarded to one person at a time. The recipient of the title will automatically become one of the royal officials. As the king's astronomy advisor, he is equivalent to being one of the king's chamberlains.
This is why, after Eddington realized his impolite behavior, he was respectful to Dyson.
Dyson is also a graduate of Trinity College and a senior student of Eddington and Chen Muwu.
Chen Muwu now feels that although he was lucky to enter the Cavendish Laboratory, he is even luckier to enter Trinity College than to enter Cavendish.
From the king to the prime minister, from the president of Cambridge University to the dean of Trinity College, plus today’s Astronomer Royal, the leaders of all walks of life in the UK are basically related to Trinity College.
If Chen Muwu wants to speculate, then his status as an alumnus of Trinity College will become an increasingly valuable brand.
Like Eddington, Dyson was an enlightened physicist who had long supported the theory of relativity.
In 1919, after the end of World War I, British astronomers divided into two groups to observe the total solar eclipse in the southern hemisphere to verify the correctness of the general theory of relativity.
Eddington led a team to Principe Island in West Africa, and the captain of another observation team on an expedition to Brazil was none other than Dyson.
After Eddington introduced each other, Chen Muwu quickly stretched out his hand and shook Dyson's hand on the other side of the desk: "Sir, nice to see you."
Although, as Eddington said, Chen Muwu did cause several disturbances in the physics world, these were not Dyson's old profession after all, so the director was not that interested.
In fact, many astronomers in this era have switched careers from mathematics. The two in front of them, Eddington and Dyson, were respectively the first and second place graduates from the Department of Mathematics at Cambridge University. .
But when Eddington said that Chen Muwu was also the discoverer of Planet X, Dyson couldn't help but be impressed.
"Young man, I have heard of your name a long time ago. I didn't expect that we would meet here. I also didn't expect that you would give me a surprise gift as soon as we met."
He no longer politely asked Chen Muwu about the discovery process of Planet What can I do?"
"Of course we have to publish the results before those Yankees do!" Eddington said this with great pride. "Sir, you, plus me, will get the results from President Dreyer of the Royal Astronomical Society. Please come, the three of us will make another observation on the trajectory of this planet at the Greenwich Observatory tonight. If it is confirmed that the star in the photo is indeed a new planet in the sun, we will send it to the Sun early tomorrow morning. Share this exciting news with the world!
"As for you, Chen, I think you don't need to rush to prepare for the writing of the paper on the new planet yet. Instead, you should prepare the manuscript in your stomach and think about what you should do when you face the reporters who have crossed the threshold tomorrow day. What did they say!"
After making the decision, the three of them split up. Dyson called the Royal Astronomical Society in the city and asked the secretary on duty there to inform President Dreyer and ask him to come to the Greenwich Observatory before dark tonight. .
Eddington took Chen Muwu out of the observatory building and came to a nearby house with a dome.
Under the dome is a 28-inch refracting telescope that Greenwich Observatory invested heavily in building thirty years ago. It is now the largest refracting telescope in the UK.
Chen Muwu thought of the Cepheid variable star project in his mind again, but as Eddington said, the top priority right now is not this, but the mysterious Planet X.
Cold toast and cold caviar was a simple dinner for the three of them in the observatory. After dark, Dryer, the president of the Royal Astronomical Society, hurriedly arrived on the last train.
Because he bought the ticket late, the first-class train tickets had long been sold out, so he could only choose the third-class train, which was the lowest, so his clothes were covered with a layer of soot.
Dreyer is not an Englishman, but a Dane who has been living at Oxford University. He succeeded Eddington as president of the Royal Astronomical Society only last year.
Therefore, he did not have the stinking problem of being poor and elegant like the British. When he arrived at the observatory, he ignored the soot on his body and went directly to Dyson and Eddington to ask them what happened when they called him here in such a hurry. What happened.
Eddington told him the whole story, and Dreyer was shocked.
One of the top astronomical telescopes in the UK, plus three of the top physicists in the UK. With these endorsements, as long as this new star can be observed at the Greenwich Observatory tonight based on the calculated trajectory, it will be It can be finally confirmed that the mysterious planet discovered by Chen Muwu is the ninth planet in the solar system beyond Neptune that people have been searching for.
Unlike these three excited astronomy experts, Chen Muwu is only very sleepy now.
After staying up for several nights, he even fell asleep leaning on the back of the chair behind him.
…
It wasn't until he heard exclamations and applause that he woke up again.
"Call, call Fleet Street and tell them that we have discovered the ninth planet in the solar system!" Dyson, who reacted from the shock, shouted excitedly.
"No need to bother, Sir. I think these reporters are now guarding the gate of Greenwich Observatory. All you need now is to order them to come over."
After Eddington finished speaking, he patted Chen Muwu on the shoulder again: "Young man, go wash your face and wake up. The rest of the interview will be up to you."
In fact, these newspaper and radio reporters took the same last train as Dreyer from London to Greenwich last night.
And it was Eddington who informed them.
He had seen the new planet in the telescope in Cambridge last night, so he was sure that it would be discovered in the telescope in Greenwich tonight.
So after Dyson called the Royal Astronomical Society, he also took the time to call several major newspapers in Fleet Street with whom he had good relations.
The reason why he met the newspaper office can be traced back to last year when he punched the editor of "Journal of Philosophy" because he helped Chen Muwu publish a paper.
It was not easy for the reporters. They stood in the cold wind of winter night and stayed outside the Greenwich Observatory for half a night.
When they saw someone walking out of the building and coming towards them, everyone knew that the matter regarding the planet should have been settled, and it seemed that it had a good outcome.
The Greenwich Observatory opened a conference room, which can be regarded as a small press conference site.
Reporters swarmed in, trying to grab a front-row seat where they could raise their hands and ask questions.
Staff from the observatory brought them several pots of freshly brewed coffee. After a while, Royal Astronomer Dyson and his party arrived.
The reason for the delay was that although Planet The search for the ninth planet in the solar system.
Seeing someone enter the room, the conference room, which was already filled with buzzing voices, suddenly became more problematic.
"Sir Dyson, I am a reporter from The Times. Can you tell us something about this new planet?"
"I'm the Daily Telegraph..."
Dyson stretched out his hands and made a downward gesture: "Everyone, please be patient and patient. There is still a long time before dawn, enough for you to conduct interviews."
A group of four people sat in the front row facing the venue. Dreyer, the dignified president of the Royal Astronomical Society, was squeezed into a seat in the corner.
The reporters were also curious as to why there was an East Asian with black hair and yellow skin sitting in the middle seat next to Dyson on the rostrum.
"Sir Dyson, could you please tell me more about this new planet? Who discovered it first?"
"This afternoon, Professor Eddington of the University of Cambridge came to me with photos and said that they might have discovered something great. Tonight, after observations and calculations at the Greenwich Observatory, we can announce to the public that preliminary It is determined that after so many years of hard work, mankind has finally found the ninth planet in the solar system."
As soon as Dyson finished speaking, the reporters turned to target Eddington: "So, Mr. Eddington, were you the first to discover this new planet?"
"No, no, that's not the case." Eddington had no intention of taking the credit for himself. Instead, he stretched out his flat palm and introduced Chen Muwu to the reporters, "I was not the one who discovered this planet. But this young man from China, he is a student of Trinity College, Cambridge University, Chen Muwu."
In the past year, although Chen Muwu's name has appeared in the news every now and then, he has always been a "dragon that sees the beginning but not the end". His photo has never been published in the newspapers, so at the beginning, no one knew what this young man really was. No one would associate the two of them together.
When it was finally revealed that this person was Chen Muwu, the reporters in the conference room let out another burst of exclamation.
"Mr. Chen, can you tell us how you discovered this new planet?"
Chen Muwu told the truth, since he went to the Cambridge University Observatory to find Eddington two months ago, how he had learned how to operate an astronomical telescope with him, and how he had been alone in front of a boring telescope day after day, facing the dark but bright night sky. Looking for the same lonely star.
The discovery of a new planet that humans have been searching for for a long time is already a very interesting news.
And this discoverer happened to be a Chinese, a Chinese who had already made a great reputation in the UK.
When the two pieces of news are combined, it is difficult to prevent public opinion from exploding.
(End of chapter)
