No Aliens Attacking Earth

Chapter 16: No Aliens Attacking Earth

In the dead of night, two young men were frantically grinding through practice problems.

Li Zhendong was angry, truly angry. Every time he was surpassed by Zhang Yuan, he had to redouble his efforts to overtake him again.

Effort, for him, was a deeply painful thing.

Especially when this guy was happily giggling away while solving junior high math olympiad problems—what was that about?

Being able to find such bliss in solving junior high math olympiad problems; was he even human?

Clutching a handful of his hair, Li Zhendong felt restless. The various characters on the page looked like fleas, jumping here and there, and after staring for a long time, he still had no idea what they meant.

He couldn't settle his mind, so he stopped reading.

He glanced at Zhang Yuan's problem: "Prove that the n-th root of 2 is always an irrational number. (n is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2.)"

"Proof: Assume the n-th root of 2 is a rational number, expressed as p/q, where p and q are coprime."

"Then 2 = (p^n)/(q^n), which means 2(q^n) = (p^n)."

"Rearranging the terms gives p^n = q^n + q^n."

"According to Fermat's Last Theorem, this equation has no positive integer solutions. Therefore, the assumption is false, and the n-th root of 2 is always an irrational number."

Li Zhendong nearly coughed up blood: "You can't teach my sister like this, you really can't! And you're doing her math olympiad homework for her—how is this okay?"

Zhang Yuan paused, realizing he had unknowingly become a free homework-doing thug.

But it didn't matter; the entire line of reasoning... if she copied it exactly as is, the teacher would surely laugh himself silly.

"Forget it, I'm done too. This was enough of a distraction." Zhang Yuan yawned, feeling quite content.

Li Zhendong finally let out a sigh of relief, impatiently putting down the book in his hand and rubbing his aching temples.

He picked up his telescope, walked out onto the balcony, and looked toward a direction in deep space.

Gliese 581, a red dwarf located about 2 degrees north of Beta Librae, was their destination.

It had a mass of 0.31 solar masses, a radius of 0.38 solar radii, and a surface temperature of about 3,480K (3,206.85°C).

With an apparent magnitude of +10.56, it meant that ordinary astronomical telescopes couldn't see it, yet Li Zhendong searched for it tirelessly.

That was their future home star!

Li Zhendong had a sudden thought: "Tell me, why is there a Deep Space Project? Could it be that the human leadership already knows aliens are coming to attack Earth?"

"Impossible!"

Zhang Yuan replied calmly: "If that were really the case, they would definitely be pooling global resources to build ships on a massive scale. And would it be our turn to escape? You've seen all those sci-fi movies, right? When the apocalypse comes, how much does a ticket on Noah's Ark cost? Even if we are the sons of scientists, we aren't necessarily that important, are we?"

"Movies aren't reality, but they are a partial reflection of it. No national leader is scrambling to run away right now; since when has humanity become so noble?"

There was a moment of silence.

The 500,000 volunteers were not the absolute best of Earth's civilization; everything relied on personal choice. There were a few scientific giants with dreams, but the real political heavyweights would never abandon everything on Earth to go to such a desolate, godforsaken place.

Li Zhendong smiled: "True, so there are no aliens attacking Earth. Then what do you think the reason is?"

Zhang Yuan pointed to two directions in the sky, frowning as he said: "It could be that, or it could be this... or maybe both reasons, or perhaps there are even more important reasons that we aren't aware of..."

In the direction Zhang Yuan was pointing, there was a star, KIC-8462852, commonly known as Tabby's Star.

In the other direction was Eta Carinae.

He looked up at the sky.

The moon was bright and the stars were sparse; the lights of the big city obscured the brilliant starry sky overhead, making it even harder to spot these stars.

In 1977, there was a massive blackout in North America.

On that night when the lights vanished, the boundless firmament revealed its original, primitive appearance.

A laughable scene occurred: that night, the police station actually received many alarm calls claiming that "aliens are attacking Earth!"

The reason was simply... these city dwellers had never seen the real Milky Way, and they were caught off guard and terrified by the primordial power coming from the dawn of time.

Yes, Mother Earth was just too warm, too gentle—so gentle that the humans of that era were reluctant to leave their cradle, having gradually forgotten the vast world outside.

However...

This world did not consist only of humans.

The universe would not simply disappear just because humans buried their heads in the sand.

The first challenge came from "Eta Carinae," a hypergiant star with over a hundred times the mass of the Sun. Scientists estimated that this star could erupt within a million years, forming a hypernova!

Note, a hypernova—it had an extra "hyper" compared to an ordinary supernova.

If the fact that Eta Carinae was a full 7,500 light-years away from the solar system was considered good news, then the other piece of information was simply fatal...

Research indicated that its rotation axis was likely already aimed at the solar system, no different from a stellar cannon ready to fire at any moment!

When Eta Carinae exploded, a powerful gamma-ray burst would sweep across the entire solar system.

"It's a pity that we can't see this bright star from the Northern Hemisphere."

Of course, this disaster could be very large, or it could be very small. First of all, the timeline for its eruption was far too vague; it could be a million years from now, it could be tomorrow, or it might have even exploded a hundred years ago.

Furthermore, scientists are still arguing to this day about the rotational axis deflection of Eta Carinae and the prevention of disasters related to it...

Humanity's understanding of this type of celestial body is limited, making it difficult to accurately predict the disasters it might bring to human civilization.

After traveling a long distance, a gamma-ray burst could potentially destroy an entire ecosystem, or it might have no significant impact at all. Either way, it remains unclear.

The second challenge comes from KIC 8462852, Tabby's Star.

In the 21st century, humanity had already discovered this strange star, and its periodic light fluctuations once drew widespread attention from astronomers.

At the time, many scientists speculated that a nebula or some other large celestial body was obscuring the star, thus causing its light fluctuations.

However!

Hundreds of years of observation have only proven one thing: its obscuration rate is increasing at a speed of 0.64 per thousand every decade.

In other words, if the maximum obscuration data ten years ago was 22.112%, then now it is 22.176%, without exception.

What does this mean?

It means that in the vicinity of that star, there exists an artificial structure, and it is currently being constructed at a steady rate.

It has been going on for hundreds of years!

A Dyson Sphere, it is right there. It will not change because of human will.

This fact triggered immense panic among the upper echelons of civilization.

A distance of 1,400 light-years is too far for humanity, yet it is far from enough to smooth over this panic.

Any normal person knows what a "Dyson Sphere" implies.

Compared to a civilization capable of building a Dyson Sphere, human civilization is practically a paramecium!

At the time, Professor Qi Yuanshan, the "Father of Nuclear Fusion," wrote excitedly in his diary: "If there are no aliens, humanity will be destroyed by its own sloth!"

"...Just like in the old era, the impending wave of entertainment and non-toxic neuro-drugs will inevitably destroy most of humanity's enterprising spirit. With the Dyson Sphere proven to be real, humanity might be able to pull itself together from decadent consumerism and capitalism, similar to the effect of the US-Soviet Cold War!"

"I must say, humanity has a good neighbor, perhaps there is still hope, how fortunate... indeed!"