Jupiter Wind

Through his telescope, Xiao Wu saw the fragments from the Earth's explosion beginning to shake chaotically. Some smaller pieces flew out of orbit, towards the Sun, but the larger ones remained near their old orbit. Xiao Wu breathed a sigh of relief, secretly rejoicing that the Sun and himself had escaped.

A high-energy radiation burst erupted very strongly, but it also came and went very quickly.

Xiao Wu still hid behind Mars, as the radiation burst was only the first attack.

The second wave was a stream of electrons, also known as charged solar wind. The Aurora Borealis on Earth is caused by a stream of electrons from the Sun colliding with the Earth's magnetic field.

When the Sun erupted, the electron stream reached its maximum intensity, potentially affecting satellite communications and crippling power grids. The widespread power outage in the United States in the 20th century was caused by a solar storm.

It's easy to see that the electron stream from Jupiter this time will be many times stronger than the Sun! The Sun erupts under normal conditions, but the current situation of Jupiter is unknown in terms of the extent of its destruction.

The electron stream moves much slower than light, at a speed of about 4 million km/h. Preliminary calculations estimate that it will reach Mars' orbit in about five days.

The scary thing is that Xiao Wu is relying on electronic devices to survive. Even while hiding behind Mars, no one can be sure how this storm from Jupiter will affect Xiao Wu.

Considering he had escaped the first danger, Xiao Wu, out of curiosity, decided to use the remaining fuel to shift his orbit and observe Jupiter.

From the shadow behind Mars, Xiao Wu turned his telescope towards Jupiter.

From Mars' orbit, Jupiter is only visible as a bright spot to the naked eye. But the optical telescope on Xiao Wu's ship has been specially optimized, and the current distance is tens of millions of kilometers closer than Earth, so the image of Jupiter obtained is of no less quality than the Hubble Telescope before.

Xiao Wu was once again astonished.

The side of Jupiter facing the Sun turned a dark red, as if bleeding. Countless violent swirling gas streams ravaged Jupiter, affecting the orbits of its satellites.

Jupiter's axis of rotation tilted an additional three degrees from before.

Xiao Wu carefully observed this image, simultaneously opening all the observation equipment on the spaceship to collect data. This type of data is extremely valuable and has important reference value for Xiao Wu's future scientific and technological development.

After an hour of observation, Xiao Wu suddenly realized a very important issue: "Why is a nuclear fusion reaction occurring in the impact zone on Jupiter?"

Xiao Wu was tense, immediately stopping unnecessary data calculations, focusing all his computing power on analyzing this phenomenon.

Gradually, through observing Jupiter, the theory that had been somewhat incomplete in Xiao Wu's mind began to become more complete.

That is the theory of controllable nuclear fusion. Great nature has its special methods. Through the event of the Moon colliding with Jupiter, it gave Xiao Wu a lesson, teaching him about controllable nuclear fusion.

As early as the discovery of Einstein's famous formula, e=mc², humanity began exploring nuclear energy, the most striking example being the hydrogen bomb. However, hydrogen bombs are based on uncontrollable fusion reactions; they are suitable for weapons but nothing else. To effectively utilize this immense energy source, a method for controlling fusion reactions must be found.

Xiao Wu, a prominent figure in the scientific community, naturally held a deep interest in this research. Yet, even he couldn't solve it.

But now, through the greatest teacher – nature – Xiao Wu felt he might be able to solve this problem.

The biggest challenge in controllable fusion reactions is the lack of a container to house the reaction. Because when fusion occurs, the temperature reaches tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of degrees, no known material can withstand this heat.

Therefore, humanity has proposed two methods: magnetic confinement and inertial confinement. These methods aim to constrain the fusion reactor using magnetic fields or inertia, enabling stable energy output. However, both research methods remain theoretical.

Xiao Wu focused on magnetic confinement.

Jupiter has a very strong magnetic field. Jupiter's magnetic field stably contained the impact point, where the fusion reactor released energy.

This is the most concise and efficient teaching method. For example, if you don't know how to fold an origami plane, and someone gives you a ready-made one, forbidding you to unfold it, and asks you to figure out how to fold it, you'd find it extremely difficult.

But if someone demonstrates how to fold it once, you can learn immediately.

Nature favored Xiao Wu, having already folded a "controllable fusion reaction" origami plane.

If Xiao Wu were still alive, his eyes would surely blaze. And if he were still breathing, his breath would undoubtedly be heavy.

No one understood the importance of controlled fusion reactions better than Xiao Wu.

With controlled fusion, space travel becomes feasible, and energy is no longer a shackle on scientific and technological development.

"My dream of space travel finally has hope!" Xiao Wu was moved to tears.

Xiao Wu diligently observed for five days, trying to gather as much data on controlled fusion reactions as possible. Then, before the expected arrival of the high-energy electron stream, he hid behind Mars. With the collected data, it was only a matter of time before Xiao Wu solved the mystery of controlled fusion reactions.

"Build a powerful space fleet! Leave the Solar System, conquer the Milky Way!" Xiao Wu silently roared in his heart.

Five hours after Xiao Wu hid behind Mars, the high-energy electron stream finally reached Mars' orbit. The result was an unavoidable catastrophe.

Although Mars acted as a shield, due to the influence of Jupiter's wind, half of Xiao Wu's ship's equipment was instantly damaged, and the Central Computer's computing power decreased to 30% of its peak.

High-energy electron streams have a very strong stripping ability, while Mars's magnetic field is too weak. This means that Mars is almost incapable of resisting this fierce Jovian wind.

Almost instantly, Mars's thin atmosphere was almost completely stripped away, and the devastating lava on Mars's surface was directly exposed to outer space.

Under the sweep of the powerful Jovian wind, the entire Mars transformed into a giant comet! It trailed a long cometary tail towards the Sun, carrying countless meteorites, engulfing Xiao Wu's small ship.

"Damn it! What the hell, are you kidding me?" Witnessing this scene, Xiao Wu was horrified and couldn't help but curse.

The Central Computer, with its remaining 30% computing power, started at its highest speed, the engine and radar equipment also operating at full capacity, the energy consumption reaching a level that made Xiao Wu heartbroken.

In the pitch-black space, Xiao Wu steered his small ship, dodging meteorites flying everywhere.

"I just obtained the most important core technology of controlled nuclear fusion, a bright future awaits me, how can I die at this moment?"

This belief helped Xiao Wu survive three days of the Jovian storm. When Xiao Wu finally recovered, he carefully checked his small ship, and a bitter taste welled up in his heart.

"The damage... is really too serious..." Xiao Wu sighed helplessly.

The Jovian wind had subsided, and Mars's cometary tail also began to fade. But this process could take a very long time. Xiao Wu even predicted the outcome: the material from Mars's cometary tail would gradually fall into Mars's orbit, forming a ring around the planet.

Mars is about to become the first rocky planet in the Solar System with a ring.

Looking at Earth's orbit, the largest fragments were not blown towards the Sun by the Jovian wind. This is a good sign, because if that happened, the Sun's convection layer would be gouged out a large hole, the material inside would erupt, and the charged currents emitted from the Sun's surface would sweep across the entire Solar System. At that time, the Solar System would become hell within hell. Xiao Wu didn't know how to survive.

The prelude to the great catastrophe, beginning with the explosion of Earth and culminating in the Moon colliding with Jupiter, had passed. At least, Jupiter's outward influence had lessened. What would follow are slow and profound effects on the entire Solar System.

The most significant impact of this catastrophe is on the inner rocky planets. The three outer gas giants, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, were not significantly affected. Xiao Wu paid special attention to Titan (Saturn's sixth satellite), because when the collision occurred, it was just behind Saturn and luckily escaped, its environment not changing much.

Currently, there is a serious problem: the fuel on Xiao Wu's small ship is insufficient.

Not only that, the ship's hull had become dilapidated, riddled with holes, and many modules were experiencing electrical leaks. To avoid greater damage, Xiao Wu was forced to temporarily shut down the power to several modules. The materials warehouse was even completely destroyed, and the spare parts and materials inside had disappeared without a trace. A large section of the ship's hull was also torn open. Fortunately, the positioning system was still functioning normally, and the gyroscope was not malfunctioning; otherwise, Xiao Wu would have truly been lost in the vast universe.

"Could it be that I, a new human of the new century, will be trapped forever in Mars' orbit, until my energy runs out and I die?" Xiao Wu sighed inwardly.

An inexhaustible source of energy was waiting for Xiao Wu at Saturn VI! As long as he could get there, the energy was so abundant that even if Xiao Wu used it to make a planetary bomb, it wouldn't run out.

Xiao Wu began to think quickly, how to leave Mars' orbit and reach Saturn VI.