Chapter 367: Civilization Stop and Galactic Meteorology

Era of the Divine Vessel, year 500.

The Divine Vessel Civilization (hereinafter referred to as the Divine Vessel Civilization) arrived at Wang Liang One and decided to stay there.

Wang Liang One was not a special stellar system, and there were several reasons the Divine Vessel Civilization chose this star as a docking station:

First, as a yellow-white giant star that had already left the main sequence stage, Wang Liang One was quite old, transitioning toward the later stages of stellar evolution.

It would also eventually form a neutron star, and observing the internal structure and evolutionary processes of this star up close was a valuable research material.

Second, about thirty astronomical units away from Wang Liang One, there were two small gaseous planets, and it also had a debris disk, similar to the Kuiper Belt in the Solar System, which was rich in resources.

This too was discovered only after the Divine Vessel Civilization had departed, and determining through various means whether a star had planets from a distance of 50 light years was no easy task.

Third, the stellar environment around Wang Liang One was quite harsh; the star spun at 92% of its critical speed, rotating about 1.12 times each day. This high-speed rotation caused the star to take on an oblate shape.

As it lacked rocky planets, it was nearly impossible for a native civilization to arise, and such an environment was also unsuitable for an external civilization to reside in long-term.

The Divine Vessel Civilization had long ago sent Sophon into the Wang Liang One system for exploration, and it had not detected any suspicious activities.

The most crucial point was that Human Civilization and the Mountain Civilization had to find a resource-rich stellar system to elevate their technological level from 1.4 to 1.5, transforming technology into civilizational power.

Here, they intended not only to make some repairs and replenish their resources but to undergo a comprehensive civilizational upgrade.

For example, Humanity's Lunar Planetary Engine needed to be upgraded from Re-aggregation Technology to Mass Decay Technology.

The Mountain Civilization also needed to upgrade its technology; the key to utilizing the Vacuum Super Zero Field lay in the use of virtual energy.

They also still needed to carry out extensive validation to apply this technology to the power engines of the Mountain Civilization Warships. For the Mountain Civilization, mastering the use of virtual energy would be key to their civilizational upgrade.

If this technology could not mature, it could not be used as a warship power engine due to it generating massive space storms.

The Dinosaur Civilization and the Trisolaran Civilization also had to replenish a large amount of resources. Over these 500 years, their resource consumption had nearly reached 70% of their reserves, which was extremely dangerous for them.

The most critical was the Dinosaur Civilization, which had used up too many resources breaking through to a 1.4-level civilization; they needed a comprehensive civilizational upgrade and resource replenishment more urgently.

This upgrade process would need at least 80 years or even longer. Once the upgrade was complete, the Divine Vessel Civilization would become a true Cosmic Explorer.

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The universe is far from the tranquil and peaceful painting we imagine in our minds, with a serene starry sky but also filled with extreme danger.

In the Solar System, the calm we experience is just an illusion granted by the unique geographical location of the Solar System.

We are situated on the outer rim of a galactic arm, and the chances of encountering extreme cosmic geographical conditions are slim, which allows us to appreciate the beauty of the starry sky.

Not to mention those devastating cosmic disasters, even the mildest galactic dust clouds are enough to make us reconsider this patch of starry sky.

Should the Solar System collide with a dust cloud, it would cause sunlight to be heavily scattered and absorbed, leading to a drastic reduction in solar radiation reaching the surface of Earth. Some believe that the historical Earth "Snowball Earth" events were related to the Solar System traveling through molecular dust clouds.

The gases and dust within these molecular dust clouds might even react with the components of Earth's atmosphere, leading to changes in atmospheric composition. Such changes are undoubtedly devastating blows to the fragile ecosystem.

Consider gamma-ray bursts, usually produced by the jets released when massive stars collapse into a black hole or a neutron star.

They last from a few milliseconds to only a few minutes but contain enough power to shake the stars and are a cataclysm for all life.

A gamma-ray burst is a beam; just being at an angle greater than 10 degrees from it would allow one to escape this disaster.

Should a gamma-ray burst sweep through the Solar System, it would be a disaster indescribable in words. The energy it contains is equivalent to the total of a trillion years of sunlight. Under this calamity, Earth's path of life evolution would end instantly, plunging the Earth once again into total silence.

Some might say that the possibility of being struck by a gamma-ray burst is so minuscule as to be almost negligible. But this is not the case—the tiny possibility still lingers in our minds like a phantom.

According to estimates from the Collapsar model, we are 99.96% confident that Earth will not encounter a gamma-ray burst from within the Milky Way Galaxy in the next 500 years. But what about the next five hundred years? What about the next fifty thousand years?

There were also supernova eruptions, a magnificent final chapter in the life of a star. When a star had exhausted its core hydrogen fuel, a series of nuclear reactions took place within, ultimately triggering an explosion that shook the universe.

In this explosion, the star, at a staggering speed of one-tenth the speed of light, flung its own matter outward, accompanied by shockwaves that ravaged the surrounding space. These shockwaves shaped a shell-like structure woven of gas and dust, resembling a strange flower in the universe.

What was even more shocking was that the X-rays produced by the supernova were potent enough to destroy the atmosphere of any planet within 160 light years, leaving no hiding place for life.

In the Milky Way Galaxy, such an explosion occurred approximately every 50 years, reminding us of the universe's cruelty and ruthlessness.

However, fortunately, as long as we maintained a sufficient distance from supernovae, we could avoid disaster. In this cosmic feast, distance had become the guardian of our lives.

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The threats of the universe did not stop there; humanity's interstellar journeys required constant vigilance against unknown dangers and precise predictions.

Just as ancient sailors had to predict future weather by observing weather phenomena and changes in sea conditions, we needed to understand the "weather" of the universe during interstellar travel to avoid potential disasters.

Weather and geography are closely related, and as humanity had been venturing into interstellar space for nearly a thousand years, the meaning of geography had completely changed.

Nowadays, we were more concerned about the geography of the Milky Way Galaxy and the cosmic factors that might affect our interstellar travel.

Humanity had developed many related disciplines, such as Interstellar Gas Cloud Dynamics, Galactic Meteorology…

Gas Cloud Dynamics was a discipline that delved deeply into the properties of gas clouds in the galactic arms.

It focused on studying the density waves, rotational shear forces, and mechanisms of gravity affecting the gas clouds, revealing key properties such as the distribution, density, temperature, and velocity of the gas clouds.

More importantly, it also explored how the arms gathered and nurtured the formation of new stars, providing valuable clues for understanding the evolution of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Galactic Meteorology, on the other hand, was a crucial discipline based on the "Galactic Climate Model".

It focused on studying the climate and environmental changes of interstellar space in the Milky Way Galaxy, assessing and predicting cosmic disasters that might occur in various regions of the galaxy, akin to weather forecasting on Earth.

In interstellar travel, this predictive capability was critical as it helped us avoid potential dangers and ensured safe and smooth voyages.

The various gas flows in the galaxy had close and complex relationships with astrochemistry and astrophysics.

In molecular clouds, the flow of gas quietly altered the temperature, density, and radiation field conditions in different regions, shaping the unique features of the Milky Way Galaxy.

At the same time, gas flow was closely linked to star formation activities in the galaxy; it was both a catalyst for the birth of stars and a potential barrier to their formation.

Cold, dense gas clouds collapsed under gravity to form stars, while the flow of gas could trigger or suppress the star formation process.

Moreover, there were many extreme climate zones hidden within the galactic arms, some of which spanned thousands of light years like dark walls where dust gathered but mysteriously failed to collapse into stars.

Entering such regions was like stepping into a fog of the universe, where navigation failed and nearby hazards were difficult to detect. Even the highly advanced Divine Vessel Civilization struggled to survive in such environments.

Most of our attention often focused on the brilliant stars, yet we tended to overlook those more massive clouds of dust and gas.

Indeed, these cloud movements were the main theme of the galactic weather, and they played a grand role in portraying the transitions of the galaxy.

In the Milky Way Galaxy, dark matter accounted for about 84% of the mass, while the mass of stars only made up about 4% of the total mass of the galaxy. Besides, about 12% of the mass was made up of non-luminous materials like gas, dust, and planets in the galaxy.

This meant that if we discounted dark matter, then the mass of the non-luminous materials like gas, dust, and planets in the galaxy was actually three times that of the stars.

As for planets, they also held a small fraction of the mass in the galaxy. Most stars did not contain planets, and a planetary system like the Solar System with numerous planets was not common. Even within the Solar System, the Sun made up 99.86% of the total mass, making the mass of the planets comparatively negligible.

Galactic Meteorology was more like a discipline studying the gas and dust clouds in the Milky Way Galaxy; where there were mysteries, dangers also originated.

In front of the Divine Vessel Civilization's route was also such a dark wall, as if a chasm before the civilization, inspiring awe. However, fortunately, this dark wall was still over a thousand light years away, so there was no need for immediate worry.

Of course, the Divine Vessel Civilization had the capability to navigate around this dark wall, but with countless such dark walls within the galactic arms, how could we bypass each one?

These dark walls concealed unknown threats but also harbored the limitless potential for exploration and discovery.