Boundary of Hot Jupiter (2)

October 2029, Liang Nation, Rocket City, Sazhou

Daphne and Michael returned to Rocket City, Sazhou, from Jinshengzhou. They spent the weekend together. Michael personally made scrambled eggs and vegetable salad for breakfast. Daphne took a sip of her unsweetened coffee; its rich aroma carried a hint of bitterness, but her heart felt sweet.

What an excellent man, Daphne thought, praising Michael more than once. Although she considered herself an intelligent and radiant beauty, being in love with Michael far exceeded her expectations of what love would be. Daphne felt blessed by the heavens and secretly vowed to cherish this relationship.

The weather was nice. The couple sat nestled on the outdoor bench under the porch. Daphne suddenly seemed to remember something and asked Michael, "Martha told me she learned a secret from an informant: that sealed theories by Nikola Tesla could be used to create a super energy source. Have you heard of it?"

Michael straightened his body, turned his head slightly, and looked directly into Daphne's eyes. After thinking for a moment, he said, "My dearest Daphne, I have no secrets from you, neither about my personal life nor my business plans. However, there are some matters for which I have confidentiality obligations, so I cannot answer your question."

Daphne had asked casually, but Michael's response surprised her. She sat up straighter, thinking, Could what Martha said be true?

"As far as I know, your company launched a probe targeting Enceladus. Are you planning to search for extraterrestrial life?" Daphne asked.

Michael Max understood that Daphne's question was born purely out of curiosity. The Enceladus probe was launched by a commercial company, and if its purpose was to search for evidence of extraterrestrial life, there was no need for secrecy.

But Michael knew that he had confidentiality obligations regarding both his plan to build the first Superlight Wave Power Station on Enceladus and Professor Braun's experiment designed to verify Nikola Tesla's theory of gravity. He couldn't tell Daphne.

Michael didn't directly answer Daphne's question. Instead, he followed her train of thought about extraterrestrial life and began a discussion. Carbon-based life is composed of organic matter. Where did organic matter come from?

The latest research indicates that the materials that formed life on Earth, including amino acids and proteins, likely originated from comets that impacted Earth. This means organic matter was not "self-produced" or unique to Earth.

Candidate celestial bodies that also contain organic matter include comets and asteroids in the asteroid belt, as well as Europa and Enceladus, among others. Scientists discovered phosphorus in the spectral analysis of Enceladus's surface plumes, leading to strong suspicions that life might exist beneath its icy shell.

If Earth is not special, and organic matter or even life forms are widespread throughout the Solar System, then the next question is: Is the Solar System special? The Milky Way galaxy contains hundreds of billions of stars. Is the matter that forms life also widely distributed?

Facing the vast universe, human technology and observational capabilities are extremely limited. Let alone extraterrestrial life, only a little over 5,000 exoplanets have been discovered to date.

Keep in mind that according to scientists' calculations, the Milky Way galaxy alone might have hundreds of billions of planets.

To search for "Earths" outside the Solar System located within the habitable zones of their stars, Liang Nation launched the K space telescope, targeting a specific region 1,500 light-years from Earth for observation.

In this region, they discovered over a thousand exoplanets. Surprisingly, the vast majority of these discovered planets were far larger than Earth, some even bigger than Jupiter.

Astronomers had to change the unit for exoplanet radius from comparison with Earth to comparison with Jupiter. In other words, the size of exoplanets is measured in units of Jupiter.

Why were the discovered planets so large? Scientists offered an explanation: it might be due to observational bias. With the same observational capabilities, larger satellites are easier to detect.

But another anomaly was more perplexing: the exoplanets were very close to their parent stars, with their "Jupiters" almost touching their "Suns."

Jupiter is 5.2 astronomical units from the Sun, equivalent to over 700 million kilometers. In contrast, most exoplanets are closer to their parent stars than Mercury is.

Some planets have semi-major axes of only a few million kilometers, resulting in extremely high surface temperatures, even exceeding 2,000 degrees Celsius. Astronomers call these large, hot planets "hot Jupiters."

This observational result seemed to point back to the same question: Is the Solar System special?

If the general rule is that planets are larger than Jupiter and orbit their stars closely and hotly, while our Jupiter is relatively far from the Sun, with the asteroid belt, Mars, Earth, Venus, and Mercury on its inner side, is the atypical distribution of planets in the Solar System a coincidence, or was it formed under some special physical mechanism?

What physical mechanism prevented our Jupiter from getting closer to the Sun? Are humans simply very lucky?

As Hawking said, if humans believe the Sun or Earth is the center of the universe, it is clearly not humble enough.

Daphne believed the Solar System was certainly not special!

Our Jupiter happens to be far from the Sun, making the habitable zone between them wide enough. There must be some reasonable physical mechanism, but humans haven't realized it yet.

As they talked, they became more excited. Daphne added, "The Solar System, as the cradle of life, seems quite special for now. Earth is in the habitable zone, and Jupiter is far away, separated by the asteroid belt and Mars. If Jupiter orbited within Mercury's orbit like other exoplanets, forget about intelligent life like humans; Earth would have likely been burned up by the Sun long ago."

"Facing the vast universe, humanity is indeed too small. For an action-oriented person like me, driven by curiosity, I always manage to figure out one problem, only to bring up a whole string of new ones," Michael said, pulling Daphne up and leading her back into the house.

The television on the wall was broadcasting the morning news. A particular report caught their attention. Michael turned up the volume. The news was being broadcast by the Tian Gao News Channel.

Martha, the chief investigative reporter for Tian Gao News, filled almost the entire screen. The scrolling ticker below the screen displayed the news headline:

The Deals of the Rich: Can Money Truly Buy Everything?

Martha reported that many top billionaires were undergoing stem cell injections to maintain their health and extend their lives.

Her investigation revealed that some billionaires receiving stem cell treatments experienced rejection reactions. To neutralize this rejection, the latest therapy involved transfusing "original blood" from young people into the recipients.

"Original blood" refers to the blood of healthy individuals who have not been "contaminated" by modern medicine. The recipients are wealthy individuals undergoing regular, expensive stem cell treatments. The donors of the original blood are often young people who grew up in economically underdeveloped, indigenous tribes.

Martha spoke passionately, raising a sharp ethical question:

Can money buy everything? Can "original blood" be traded at a price?

Martha on screen roared, as if she might leap out of the screen at any moment. She subtly implied that a wealthy individual from the Sha You Kingdom was suspected of preparing to make such a transaction.

Michael Max's hand, holding Daphne's, tightened involuntarily. He thought, I heard earlier in the Sha You Kingdom that Prince Harufa was having health issues. Could it be due to rejection reactions from stem cell treatments?

Martha's exposé didn't seem like baseless gossip. Was Prince Harufa really going to exchange money for "original blood"? Such an act was truly hard to accept.

Michael said to Daphne, "Although I've only met the Prince once, I strongly feel that his moral character is no less than his wealth. I would prefer to believe he wouldn't do such a thing."

Daphne didn't know Prince Harufa. She completely agreed with Martha's ethical standards but felt indifferent towards the person involved in the news report.

Daphne viewed Martha's news report differently from Michael. She thought, Martha is such an all-seeing reporter.

As if by telepathy, Michael suddenly realized the nature of Martha's work and her exceptional abilities. He asked Daphne, "When Martha met with you that day, besides mentioning Nikola Tesla's theories and my Enceladus probe, what else did she ask you?"

Daphne tried her best to recall and replied, "She also asked me if there were any boundaries to my love for you, and if I would support you in doing anything, for example, if your experiment might blow up Saturn's rings."

A Collection of Poems:

I love Junping for his good teaching, Song Dynasty, Ouyang Xiu

Who can I confide my heart's affairs to? Song Dynasty, Xu Jizhi

Great Heaven and Earth give birth to all things, Yuan Dynasty, Jia Sidao

My gratitude for your kindness is profound and incomparable. Ming Dynasty, Ding Henian