Diving Deep into the Metallic Ocean

As the Probe Spaceship continued its descent, humans witnessed a series of amazing sights through the Probe Spaceship's cameras and detection equipment.

First, the pressure sensors on the Probe Spaceship detected that the pressure on the spacecraft was increasing rapidly, from 0 atmospheres when it first entered the Nebula to one atmosphere, then two atmospheres.

In this region, humans, through the optical equipment built into the spacecraft, saw that the surrounding area was filled with thick clouds. The planet's rapid rotation caused these clouds to transform into super-powerful storms. From the human perspective, it looked like dense cotton clouds crashing into the spacecraft.

At this time, the outside temperature displayed by the temperature sensor is approximately minus 120 degrees Celsius.

The so-called clouds were not clouds in the true sense, but rather a thick layer of hydrogen gas filling the entire spaceship's field of vision. Hydrogen is colorless and odorless, but here it appeared as clouds above a storm, visible to the naked eye.

As the Probe Spaceship passed over the thick layer of hydrogen gas and continued its descent, the temperature sensor detected a continuous surge in temperature, and the pressure sensor also detected a steady increase in pressure.

Gradually, the humans on the Research Ship, through Probe Spaceship, saw the surrounding scenery gradually change into another scene.

Ice crystals began to appear in the originally thick hydrogen gas. These ice crystals mixed with the thick hydrogen cloud and continuously impacted the outer armor of the Probe Spaceship at a speed of hundreds of meters per second.

At this moment, the Probe Spaceship felt as if it were in a terrifying place. The swarming mixture of hydrogen ice crystals and hydrogen clouds was like a legendary ice spell, constantly ravaging the Probe Spaceship.

Humans knew that this was because the hydrogen cloud layer followed the planet's rotation. Therefore, under the control of the Probe Spaceship's Intelligent Program, the spacecraft also accelerated in the direction of the planet's rotation, so that the spacecraft itself could keep as synchronized as possible with the 'Cloud Ice' storm layer, while continuing to descend.

As ambient temperature and pressure continue to rise, the concentration of hydrogen clouds also continues to climb.

At this moment, the hydrogen cloud can no longer be considered an ordinary cloud. Instead, it has become a tangible cloud-like object. If someone were to stand on these clouds, they could probably walk on them like a deity in a TV show.

Such a dense layer of hydrogen naturally creates immense resistance. Therefore, under the control of the Intelligent Program, the Probe Spaceship began to reduce the output power of its engines to ensure that the spacecraft could continue to descend under the influence of Gravity, rather than being embedded in the hydrogen cloud and being swept around by it.

Probe Spaceship continued its descent, humans gradually discovered that the surrounding hydrogen clouds no longer resembled hydrogen clouds, but had transformed into a viscous fluid.

Humans know that the Probe Spaceship is traversing from a region of hydrogen gas clouds into a region of Liquid Hydrogen. Upon entering the Liquid Hydrogen region, various sensors indicate that the Probe Spaceship is being subjected to a variety of harsh conditions.

First, the temperature of the Probe Spaceship's outer shell soared to tens of thousands of degrees Celsius. Fortunately, the Probe Spaceship's outer shell was made of No. 2 Alloy Material, which can withstand temperatures as high as 280 million degrees Celsius.

The Probe Spaceship was not destroyed by the high temperature and pressure, but at this time, humans discovered that the Probe Spaceship was facing another problem: its engines were having difficulty operating and were almost no longer descending.

Once inside the high-temperature, high-pressure Liquid Hydrogen environment, the Probe Spaceship is like a submarine. The powerful external pressure has made it difficult for the external nozzles of the Probe Spaceship's engine to continue to spew out exhaust flames, while at the same time, it is also causing the internal pressure of the engine to rise sharply.

Human materials technology is very advanced, and the Fusion Engine's reaction chamber wouldn't be crushed by such pressure. However, the drastic change in pressure environment has already damaged the Fusion Engine's environment. Therefore, if the pressure continues to drop, the Fusion Engine of the Probe Spaceship will be completely destroyed.

In other words, at this point, the Probe Spaceship was no different from a submarine; the Fusion Engine was no longer working, so it had no power to descend.

The saying goes, "Going to heaven or going to earth" is true, but going to heaven is countless times more difficult than going to earth. This was true in the Earth Era, and it is true for humans today.

Under normal circumstances, there would be no way to conduct this probe.

However, since they were specifically designed to probe the interiors of Gaseous Planet, human Probe Spaceship are naturally not that simple.

Human scientists had already considered the high temperature and high pressure environment of Liquid Hydrogen, so the Intelligent System made a judgment immediately.

First, the Fusion Engine components were separated and ejected like rocket boosters. Next, the second-stage propulsion system was activated, turning the probe around. Driven by this system, the propellers propelled the probe further down.

Propelled by the propellers, the Probe Spaceship could continue its journey through Liquid Hydrogen, diving ever deeper. After traversing thousands of kilometers of Liquid Hydrogen, the Probe Spaceship entered a new environment.

Extremely high temperature and extremely high pressure.

Under the powerful Gravity of the Gaseous Planet, the pressure here has reached nearly two million atmospheres. The immense pressure has caused considerable deformation to the outer shell of the Probe Spaceship. It should be noted that the deepest point on the ocean floor that humans have ever reached in Earth Era is only about one thousand atmospheres.

Here, due to the high temperature and pressure, the Hydrogen Atom has lost its binding force on the outer electrons, and those electrons that were bound in the atom have now become free electrons.

In chemistry class, we learned that the property of easily losing electrons is usually found in metallic elements, but now this has happened to Hydrogen Element.

Therefore, the hydrogen here is no longer normal Liquid Hydrogen, but has become Metallic Hydrogen, Liquid Metallic Hydrogen.

Advanced Materials Technology enabled the probe to continue its descent. Soon after, scientists discovered through various sensors that the ambient temperature had exceeded 17,000 degrees Celsius and the pressure had reached four million atmospheres.

At this point, the density difference between the Probe Spaceship and its environment made it extremely difficult for the spacecraft to continue its descent, and its propeller movement became extremely difficult, much like stirring a steel shovel in viscous cement.

After collecting a lot of data here, the scientists drove the probe down further, only to find a vast and deep world of Metallic Hydrogen, truly unfathomable.

"We can't descend any further. If we continue to dive, even if the Probe Spaceship can withstand the high temperatures and pressures, it will be paralyzed due to damage to the internal drive gears and other structures of the engine," a scientist in charge of the project said, looking at the various data transmitted back by the probe.

He makes a lot of sense. By this time, the optical lenses on the Probe Spaceship had already failed, and the same was true for other Electromagnetic Wave detectors. Some of them were just Neutrino Detection systems built into the Probe Spaceship.

Unlike the Probe Spaceship, the various power gears are not made of No. 2 Alloy Material, so based on all the data, if we continue to descend, we will really lose contact.

"It's alright. The Neutrino Detection will probe the center of mass of the Gaseous Planet and then continue its descent. This detector is a one-time use device. This mission is important and it's difficult to complete it in one go. Besides, one of its tasks is to test how deep we can go now. As long as we don't get nothing, it's not a failure," another chief scientist said, shaking his head.

Based on theoretical speculation, they believe that if they could cross this thickest layer of Metallic Hydrogen, they would reach the true core of the Gaseous Planet.