Chapter 371: Exploring Daling-5

After some discussion and planning, the Divine Vessel Civilization decided to station at a position about 0.5 light-years away from the Daling Five Stellar System and dispatched an Exploration Fleet to delve into Daling Five for reconnaissance.

The fleet was composed of 20 warships, with five warships each selected from four different civilizations, and each ship was loaded with its civilization's most advanced technology and weapons.

The highest commander of the human exploration warships was Chu Yan, who had now become the supreme commander of the human military.

A millennium ago, when the crisis of the Mountain Civilization loomed over the Solar System Alliance like a shadow, humanity ultimately decided to enter the interior of the Moon en masse, leading to a quiet shift in human governance, with Wallfacer International gradually becoming the new center of power.

As one of the leaders of Wallfacer International, Chu Yan's status rose with the passage of time, until today, he stood firmly at the pinnacle of the human military.

The other leader of Wallfacer International, Xiang Gaofeng, also commanded attention. Following only behind Ye Chen, he became the most prominent official in the human regime after this legendary figure.

The highest commander of the Trisolaran fleet was the Strategy Governor, while the Dinosaur civilization sent the Commanding Elder of the military, and the Mountain Civilization dispatched the Chief of Military Intelligence.

They were all second or third in command within their respective civilizations, and they also shared a common identity as diplomatic envoys.

Under the backdrop of the Interstellar Era, diplomatic relations between civilizations were crucial for the survival and development of each. Therefore, although these envoys were not the highest decision-makers, they must have significant influence in both military and political spheres, possessing the authority to speak on behalf of their entire civilizations.

...

Two months later.

The Divine Vessel Exploration Fleet arrived at a region 100 astronomical units away from the three stars of Daling Five, a space enveloped in a thick and slightly yellowish-black fog of dust clouds, which tightly wrapped the entire stellar system in an impenetrable shroud.

The thickness and density of this black dust cloud exceeded everyone's imagination, nearly an astronomical unit thick, and its concentration was dozens of times greater than that of normal interstellar dust.

Interstellar dust clouds are slightly different from interstellar dust and are not strictly defined. Interstellar dust is generally thought to be tiny particles floating in space, typically ranging from a few nanometers to several micrometers in size. These tiny particles are primarily made up of elements such as carbon, silicon, oxygen, iron, magnesium, and calcium.

Interstellar dust clouds are clusters of gas and dust particles densely packed in interstellar space, composed of gases (such as hydrogen and helium) and dust particles.

In this black fog of Chaos, there were no boundaries between sky and ground, nor any scale for time and space. Everything existed in a blurred state, neither fully material nor void, just a delicate balance between existence and nonexistence.

Occasionally, faint ripples would emerge from within the Chaos, as if they were breaths from the depths of the universe, signalling that a change was on the horizon.

Compared to the astounding thickness and density of the black dust cloud, what interested the Divine Vessel Civilization more was its composition.

Initially, it was thought there was a band of icy small celestial bodies, but when the Exploration Fleet started their detection, they found that while this so-called ice band did exist, its size was much smaller than initially estimated.

In exploring the cosmos, humans rely primarily on spectroscopic analysis and theoretical calculations for remote measurement of a celestial body's compositional elements.

In this black dust cloud, due to the abundance of icy materials and a specific density contrast, it was easy to be misled into believing that there was a large band of small celestial bodies.

This, however, was not the main focus of human interest. The focal point was the abundance of the Boron Element, which was far higher than anyone had imagined.

In the elemental abundance table of the universe, boron always appears insignificant; its abundance is so low that it is almost negligible compared to trace heavy elements.

The matter in the universe is mainly formed during cosmic nucleosynthesis and stellar nucleosynthesis; of course, the collision of white dwarfs or neutron stars, and supernova explosions, can also produce a great deal of heavy elements, but this is not delved into here.

Following the sequence in which elements form in stars, those that form earlier should be more abundant; hence, the content of lithium, beryllium, and boron should also be high.

The actual cosmic elemental abundance order is hydrogen, helium, oxygen, carbon, neon, nitrogen, magnesium, silicon, iron—a sequence familiar to us and consistent with everyday experience.

Stars can fuse many types of elements, but lithium, beryllium, and boron are exceptions.

Lithium is exceptional because stars can only produce unstable lithium-5 isotopes, which quickly decay. Furthermore, lithium nuclei easily undergo fusion reactions with protons, resulting in two helium nuclei.

The situation with beryllium is similar; even if stars do produce lithium or beryllium, they cannot be preserved for long.

Boron has an even worse fate because there is no pathway for boron nuclei to be fused within the interior of a star.

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The elements lithium, beryllium, and boron in the universe are thought to be formed by high-energy particles colliding with heavy atomic nuclei, which is why they are so rare.

Boron in the universe is formed when carbon atoms or heavier elements are bombarded intensely by high-energy cosmic particles, which shatter the carbon atoms or heavy element nuclei into many free nucleons or light nuclei. This process is called spallation, and it is the origin of boron.

However, the abundance of boron within the clouds of dark fog and dust enveloping Daling-5 was several times higher than that of carbon, which seemed to be another "paradox."

Faced with this strange phenomenon, researchers gradually understood the specific reasons after a period of observation.

The formation of boron here was also related to high-energy particles, but they didn't originate from cosmic rays, instead, they came from those three erratically moving stars that were extremely close to each other.

These three stars were dancing with each other in an almost insane manner.

Two of them were only ten million kilometers apart, yet their diameters were four million and four million seven hundred thousand kilometers respectively—both more than three times the size of The Sun. They were almost face to face, confronting each other with an alarmingly close proximity, even exchanging stellar materials.

As for the third star, although it was a bit further away at 2.7 astronomical units, its radius was roughly 1.7 times that of The Sun, making it also a star not to be underestimated.

Some might wonder whether it is possible for the three stars to collide with each other due to gravitational forces in their chaotic movement.

Although there's a possibility, it's extremely low. The mutual movement of the three stars is essentially one of orbiting around each other, with their overall angular momentum conserved. The paths are difficult to calculate but they are not without trajectories; they usually don't collide.

However, when they are very close to each other, even exchanging materials, they are bound to collide sooner or later.

Due to the influence of these three Great Stars, they frequently erupt on a large scale and eject a tremendous amount of high-energy particles.

The energy levels of these high-energy particles even reach the point where they can shatter the nuclei of heavy elements, which is why the abundance of boron in the dust clouds of Daling-5 is so high.

The Exploration Fleet continued forward, passing through the nearly astronomical unit thick cloud of dark fog and dust. More accurately, this was a wall, a wall composed of dark fog and dust.

As the Fleet penetrated deeper into the wall of dark fog, they finally reached the end of the dark fog, but the wall didn't stop there.

Ahead lay another wall, a firewall created by the wild dance of plasma, the rampant stellar winds, and other materials. It stood like an insurmountable natural moat.

The height of the firewall's temperature neared a hundred thousand degrees Celsius, a far cry from the heliosphere of the Solar System (which extends 50 to 150 astronomical units from The Sun).

While the heliosphere of the Solar System does have high temperatures ranging from 30,000 to 50,000 degrees Celsius, its particle density is pitifully low and the heat it generates is negligible, therefore having almost no effect on spacecraft traveling through it.

However, the firewall of Daling-5 is markedly different. Its particle density is not low, as the stellar wind and other materials sprayed out by the three suns over billions of years have been retained due to the existence of the wall of dark fog, accumulating more and more, and eventually forming such a formidable firewall.

The heat generated by it is significant, to the point where even water at normal temperature and pressure would boil. It stands like an insurmountable boundary, strictly dividing the star system into two: on one side is the extremely high temperature inside the wall of dark fog, and on the other is the icy cold outside.

This extremely harsh environment is undoubtedly a forbidden zone for life. Such a star system, even for extraterrestrial civilizations, would not be chosen as a place for repair.

First, the efficiency of material gathering here is extremely low. The space teems with endless gases and dust, yet in space, we cannot rely on "vacuum cleaner" like devices to collect these materials;

Second, such an extreme environment is unfriendly to all known civilizations. Even Silicon-based Civilizations would not choose to stay in such a place.

In fact, Silicon-based Civilizations have an even deeper aversion to high-energy particles and their resistance to cosmic rays is even lower than that of Carbon-based Civilizations.

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However, unbeknownst to the Exploration Fleet, a group of unknown life forms was silently monitoring their approach in the depths of this dark fog wall.

These life forms, like phantoms hidden in the abyss, quietly watched every minute movement of the Exploration Fleet.

Their existence itself was a "paradox," as life had emerged in a forbidden zone for life.

No one knew what their existence would bring to the Divine Vessel Civilization.

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