Discover new planets

Leaving the Jupiter system, Xiao Yu felt an overwhelming sense of exhilaration. Despite the earlier fright, he deemed the experience entirely worthwhile, for the peculiar radiation sources exhibited value far beyond merely enhancing material properties.

The paramount value lies in their mechanism of transformation—why do these metals undergo such substantial performance improvements under the influence of these radiation sources? If this mystery could be unraveled, Xiao Yu could leverage the findings to develop even stronger materials.

This, indeed, is the greatest value of these radiation sources. Undoubtedly, researching this issue requires vast computational power, something Xiao Yu possesses in abundance.

The fusion of human intellect with a computer's capabilities produces an enhancement far beyond a simple sum. A true electronic life form's research capacity is not inferior to that of the entire human society combined, supported by near-infinite learning capacity, computational power, innovative ability, and precision beyond human reach. The synergy of human and machine makes Xiao Yu's strength undeniable.

As Jupiter receded into the distance, becoming ever smaller, Xiao Yu set his sights on a bright star ahead—Saturn.

After observing the positions of several neutron stars in the cosmos, Xiao Yu confirmed his location. At present, Saturn was still 700 million kilometers away.

Determining one's position in the vastness of space is a challenging task. However, humanity had already made strides in this area, essentially solving the problem by using pulsars for navigation.

When a massive star reaches the end of its life and undergoes a supernova explosion, if the remaining core mass is below the Oppenheimer limit, it forms a neutron star, which stabilizes itself by balancing its own gravity with neutron degeneracy pressure. A pulsar is a type of neutron star, rotating at an extremely high speed and emitting incredibly powerful and stable radiation from its poles, resembling a bright beacon in the cosmos. By observing the parameters of several pulsars relative to oneself, one can infer their position.

Of course, this assumes that the positions of these neutron stars have been determined beforehand. Before fleeing Earth, Xiao Yu had already copied all of humanity's astronomical data onto his hard drive, naturally including information on these neutron stars.

The journey through space was long, and six months passed. As Saturn loomed larger before him, Xiao Yu felt a surge of excitement.

Had it not been for the need to decelerate upon approaching Saturn, the journey could have been shortened by about a month.

During these six months, Xiao Yu reprocessed the new data from Jupiter, modifying his earlier theories, and now had a slightly better grasp of controlled nuclear fusion technology.

Moreover, during these five months, Xiao Yu conducted detailed research on the peculiar radiation source contained in the box. For convenience, Xiao Yu named this strange Jovian creature "Number One."

Naturally, Xiao Yu dared not release Number One, for doing so would instantly melt the interior of the spaceship. Researching it through a thick metal box was like scratching an itch through a shoe, but it was better than nothing.

Even so, Xiao Yu gathered a considerable amount of data. He had preliminarily discovered that it was indeed a form of life, albeit a strange one. Apart from lacking physical mass, it exhibited all the characteristics of life.

For instance, when Xiao Yu emitted a high-frequency electromagnetic wave towards it, it responded with agitated fluctuations, and its radiation intensity slightly diminished. However, no matter how Xiao Yu manipulated it, he could never increase its radiation intensity.

Through extensive experimentation, Xiao Yu determined that Number One's intelligence was roughly equivalent to that of a trilobite from ancient times, meaning it was still in the early stages of evolution.

During this period, the metal material constituting the box had been further strengthened, with its various performance indicators nearly tripled from the original. However, after reaching this level, there were no further improvements, as if Number One's ability to enhance metal properties had a limit.

Correspondingly, Number One's radiation intensity decreased by 0.03 percent.

Xiao Yu estimated that for every ton of metal material enhanced to twice its original performance, Number One's total radiation intensity would decrease by 0.01 percent.

In other words, Number One's radiation intensity was sufficient to enhance the performance of 10,000 tons of metal material—enough to construct the framework of a medium-sized spacecraft.

To put this in perspective, before Earth's destruction, the heaviest human-built aircraft, the International Space Station, weighed less than 500 tons. Even Xiao Yu's spaceship, fully loaded with fuel, weighed only a few thousand tons, with no more than 2,000 tons of metal used.

Xiao Yu was full of anticipation for Number One's potential.

The research on controlled nuclear fusion and Number One took up less than 10% of Xiao Yu's computational capacity. During these five months, most of his energy was devoted to discovering new stars and updating data on old ones.

Xiao Yu was compiling an immense star catalog encompassing all celestial bodies. Of course, this task was only just beginning.

To earlier humans, this would have seemed an almost impossible task due to the sheer number of stars in the universe. The Milky Way alone contains between 100 billion and 400 billion stars.

For convenience, humanity had compiled numerous star catalogs classifying various types of stars, such as HD, SAO, and BD. But Xiao Yu paid no heed to these distinctions. He intended to include all types of stars, nebulae, star clusters, white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes, and galaxies in a single catalog.

With his near-unbelievable storage and retrieval capabilities, the vast number of objects posed no obstacle to him.

In these few months, Xiao Yu, using the detection system on his spaceship, which rivaled the Hubble Space Telescope, combined with existing human data, had preliminarily cataloged over five million stars, complete with corresponding observational data such as mass, volume, age, absolute magnitude, spectrum, metal content, angular diameter, rotation speed, orbital velocity, and positional information.

This star catalog was dynamic, as all celestial bodies in the universe are in motion. Thus, the data in Xiao Yu's catalog would gradually change over time.

"Such a magnificent catalog deserves a resounding name... Let's call it 'Chronicles of the Starry Heroes.' The stars, like heroes, are the leading figures in this vast universe!"

"Chronicles of the Starry Heroes!" Xiao Yu muttered the grand name to himself, secretly pleased.

In the Chronicles of the Starry Heroes, the star designated as number one was, without a doubt, the Sun. The Sun held a special significance for Xiao Yu.

Saturn was growing ever closer. In Xiao Yu's vision, the majestic Saturn, with its spectacular rings, resembled a celestial dancer of peerless beauty.

The rings of Saturn possess remarkable physical characteristics—they are vast yet extremely thin. The rings have a radius of approximately 110,000 kilometers, but their thickness is only about 20 meters, composed primarily of meteoroid fragments and ice particles.

Saturn shares a structure similar to that of Jupiter, meaning the resources available at Jupiter could be found at Saturn as well.

Moreover, the resource richness of Titan, one of Saturn's moons, was, for Xiao Yu, no less than that of Europa, Jupiter's moon.

Reducing his speed relative to Saturn to 30 kilometers per second, Xiao Yu entered Saturn's orbit, then gradually adjusted his velocity, slowing down to 2 kilometers per second relative to Titan, successfully entering Titan's orbit.

At this point, there was much to do. With his current technology, Xiao Yu could not directly lift off from a celestial body without the aid of rockets. Even on a small celestial body like Titan, with an escape velocity of just 2.6 kilometers per second, it was still impossible.

This meant that once Xiao Yu landed, he would not be able to move for a while. Therefore, he had to choose the most suitable landing site—one that had solid ground, was near a methane lake for fuel, and was close to an area rich in iron for building materials.

Xiao Yu began a lengthy orbital survey of Titan. After thousands of orbits, he gradually mapped out a three-dimensional model of Titan. On this map, Xiao Yu marked various terrain features, such as mountains, volcanoes, iron-rich regions, silicon-rich regions, lakes, and landmasses.

After careful analysis, Xiao Yu finally selected a site.

Shangdu District, also known as Shangri-La, a bright reflective area on Titan's leading hemisphere, approximately the size of Australia.

Traditional theory suggested this was a massive methane lake, but Xiao Yu's observations disproved this idea.

Through the thick atmosphere, Xiao Yu's cameras captured the surface conditions of Shangdu District, revealing a wondrous world.

There was solid ground and lakes, though not very large. Additionally, rivers of liquid methane flowed gently, resembling those on Earth.

Geological surveys showed that a particular area in Shangdu District contained an extremely rich iron deposit. After weighing all options, Xiao Yu chose this as his landing site.

After careful orbital calculations, Xiao Yu slowly decreased his altitude and speed, beginning his approach to Titan's smooth surface.