Chapter 21: Extinction

The depressing feeling in his heart grew stronger and stronger, and Thomson did not even have time to respond to Thomas, so he calculated on the computer. This is the keen intuition belonging to the top scientists, he had a premonition that a crisis was brewing, a disaster of extinction that no one expected was quietly happening ...

Ten fingers tapped the keyboard quickly, listing out various equations: kinetic energy formula, friction formula, aerodynamics, fluid mechanics and gravity ...

Soon, these formulas are organized on the screen, hit enter, the computer began to calculate, Thomson's breathing also began to become heavy, he felt some blackness in front of his eyes, vague signs of fainting.

Supercomputer running speed is very fast, just less than a second of work, the results have come out, instantly, he felt his heart was a big hand gripped hard, his face pale terrible. He really hoped that he had miscalculated ...

"Tutor, look at the ice I collected!" His student, Thomas, ran into the lab with a piece of plastic wrap in his hand and immediately stopped talking when he saw Thomson at work.

Thomson's mentor was a very strict man, and he would be criticized for disturbing his work. No one likes to be disturbed when they are working.

Since the explosion of the Earth, they both lost their loved ones, and the relationship between teacher and student, which was general, was instead drawn much closer, and Mentor Thomson's requirements for him became more and more severe.

However, no matter what, Thomas could always feel a hint of care in these harsh requirements. Perhaps, they were already considered the most familiar with each other.

"Thomas, you come to see if I counted correctly." Thomson said in a tired tone, fearing that he had miscalculated.

This time, he re-projected on the computer again, each formula gradually step by step, took a long time to write. In fact, according to the usual level, these simple derivations simply do not take so long, as if these few lines of the formula cost him a lifetime of effort.

"This is ..."

Thomas did not notice Thomson's look a little off, he looked curiously for a moment, the genius brain quickly responded, "Oh ... er ... I see, you are calculating a high-speed movement of the ball, can be in the air How far can it fly in the air? Well ... there should be nothing wrong with the calculation process. Ah, this is ..."

Seeing those familiar parameters, Thomas suddenly thought of a possibility and stared wide eyed, his whole body trembling. He rubbed his eyes, looked again, and found that he was not mistaken. The trepidation in his heart could hardly be described in words, and he sat down on his buttocks to meet Thomson's gaze.

"Has God forsaken us?!"

...

Oliver got this news in the next moment, and at first, his hot blood rushed up, his head was dizzy, and he instantly felt that the sky had fallen in general. What is this situation ah, one wave has not yet subsided, another wave has arisen, the human race has not even solved the food crisis, and this has happened again ...

"Can not fall ... can not fall ..." This overwhelming despair lasted only a moment, Oliver bit his lips violently, the violent bite instantly made his mouth Turned red, through this pain, he slightly become calm some. As the general director of the moon base, he must not fall into despair like ordinary people do.

This thing is in all probability true, although not born a scientist, but the basic physical formulas can still understand, because it is not profound, that is, the level of university physics.

These formulas from the point of view of energy, due to the role of friction, the mechanical energy into internal energy, there does not seem to be anything wrong.

But it is because of this that mankind is in big trouble! A drop of cold sweat dripped down from Oliver's forehead.

"Yuriko-sama, I'm going to call an emergency meeting now, and I'm asking the group leaders of each production group, and all important scientists to attend! It's very urgent, immediately, right away!" Oliver said urgently.

"What? Something important? I must warn, pulling out so many important people will have a huge impact on the production of the base!"

"No, I have something important to say! This is an order!"

...

When the meeting was held, there was even some commotion, a small group of people were unhappy with Oliver's behavior, they felt that Oliver, an outsider, had suddenly taken control of the entire base, and deep down there was still some dissatisfaction.

But by this time, Oliver was too lazy to pull the wool over their eyes, he cleared his throat and said directly, "Everyone, I have an urgent matter to say, very bad, please be mentally prepared."

With a hint of suspicion, the crowd sat down.

He opened the computer screen, drew a ball, drew another layer of atmosphere on the outside, and began to demonstrate.

"You see, this is the planet we are on - the moon."

"Over here is the Earth that was almost destroyed, and our moon is doing a revolutionary motion around the Earth because of the gravitational influence from the Earth's side."

"The moment the Earth was destroyed, the gravitational force changed because of the mass distribution, so the orbit of the moon where we are also changed ... The eccentricity of the elliptical orbit is around 0.21."

"With the change in orbit, the far places are further away from the Earth, but the near places are also closer to the Earth."

"We know that the Earth is shrouded with a lot of gas as well as dust. In the original southern hemisphere, opposite Australia in the past, there is a super-sized gas cloud spreading out from a giant mushroom cloud. With the revolution around the earth, our moon will soon cross that gas cloud."

"As you know the density of this gas cloud is very low, less than one hundred thousandth of the Earth's atmosphere. It is a mixture of water, gravel, and air, and it doesn't do much harm to us humans."

"Everyone does not take it seriously, but because of this, we all neglect this problem!"

The people at the bottom listened and whispered, wondering what Oliver was really going to say.

"You guys listen to me, even such a thin atmosphere will bring a certain amount of air resistance, and when the moon is in motion, it will generate a lot of friction with the atmosphere, converting some of the kinetic energy into internal energy."

"Think about it, the moon is so huge, the air resistance is also very huge. So, our moon has been in the process of slowing down these days ..."

The words have not yet finished, some quick-thinking people have realized what, have fidgeted, the rest of the people also began to vaguely realize that things are really somehow not good. The moon slowing down is bound to be no good.

The entire meeting room became silent, everyone began to concentrate on listening to Oliver speak, some people's hearts of small thoughts can only be temporarily hidden in the bottom of the heart.

Oliver paused for a moment, and after everyone had finished digesting, he continued: "When the speed of the moon decreases, the centripetal force required for circular motion will be less than the gravitational force of the earth on the moon, so the moon will be sucked in a little by the earth, and then the whole system will maintain a new equilibrium."

"This equilibrium is very complicated, and with the loss of kinetic energy, the moon's orbital eccentricity will increase, and the lowest point of the orbit will gradually approach the Earth, which is very dangerous."

"Because the closer to the Earth, the more meteorites, the higher the probability of being attacked. Moreover, as the density of the atmosphere increases, the faster the loss of kinetic energy of the moon ..."

"We speculate that there are three final outcomes, the first of which is that the moon is struck by a giant meteorite. The probability that this could happen is so great that a meteorite ten kilometers in diameter would trigger a magnitude thirteen earthquake that would destroy our entire base."

"The second, assuming we are not struck by a meteorite. However, the moon is so close to the Earth that it would likely be torn apart by the pull of tidal gravity ..."

"If we are lucky enough not to receive an asteroid impact and the moon is not torn apart by gravitational pull ... then, after the kinetic energy is reduced to a certain level, there will also be a risk of a Moon-Earth collision."

"This process, will not be very short, but also not long ..." Oliver paused and listed on the screen the formula given by Professor Thomson, a large dense string.

"According to conservative calculations, six months is the safest time!"

"After six months, we will be directly threatened by an outer meteorite! A ten-kilometer diameter asteroid could completely exterminate the human race."

"It is also possible that the moon will be torn apart by gravity, and then we humans will not have to say much about what will happen to us."

"The best luck outcome is only twelve months. After twelve months, there is the risk of a Moon-Earth collision!"