June is our farewell song

Chapter 20 The Milky Way by the Window

Milky Way by the window

"The two bright stars side by side are Gemini, and the one that looks like an upside-down question mark is Leo. Go down the handle of the Big Dipper, and the second star is Spica in Virgo. If I If I remember correctly, it is the constellation of your birthday."

Gu Yuan's eyes flicked over Liu Qingsi, Feng Ziqiu, and Qi Yu in turn.

"Why do you know this..." Liu Qingsi asked.

"Ah... get used to it." Gu Yuan sat on the floor with his head up, looking at the clear night sky, "Before I went to high school, I often stayed here at night when I had nothing to do alone, looking at the stars and giving them names. They are like my friends and have spent a lot of good time with me."

"Hey, by the way, do you want to see Jupiter? You can see it much more clearly than Mars." Gu Yuan jumped up from the floor and said, "I'll help you find the stars."

"Will there be a big difference? Shouldn't it be similar to Mars?" Qi Yu asked.

"It's not the same, it's not the same at all. You just try it and you'll know."

"Wow, I can see patterns and dots!" Qi Yu leaned on the eyepiece with one eye open, and whispered, "There are many small stars beside it."

"Those are the Galilean moons. They are bright enough to be seen even with smaller telescopes."

"Wow—wow, that's a lot."

"Well, indeed."

"I'm very happy if you guys like it." Gu Yuan smiled lightly, "I used to think that watching the stars is a relatively lonely thing, um... maybe I shouldn't say it's lonely, it should be said that it's relatively lonely." It's something for one person to do."

"A relatively quiet environment is needed. Compared with group parties, stargazing is indeed more suitable for a person's carnival." Liu Qingsi nodded.

"Oh, it's getting too far. After briefly introducing the stars and planets, let's talk about asteroids."

"Little Xingxing?" Qi Yu repeated in doubt.

"It's an asteroid. Ziqiu should know."

Gu Yuan looked at Feng Ziqiu, who nodded and took over the conversation.

"Asteroids generally refer to celestial bodies in the solar system that are similar to planets orbiting the sun, but are much smaller in volume and mass than planets. They can also be understood as oversized meteorites."

"Asteroids are the most numerous stars in the solar system, and the total number of asteroids that have been recorded so far exceeds 100 million."

"100 million?!"

"Well, 100 million. To be precise, 570, but in fact, the number here is probably only a small part of all asteroids. The first asteroid discovered by mankind It is Ceres, discovered by the Italian astronomer Piazzi in 1801, with a diameter of about 950 kilometers, and was once considered the largest asteroid."

"More than 200 years ago? Were asteroids discovered so early?"

"Well, however, after 2001, the throne of the largest asteroid has changed hands. Whether it is Quax or Eris, they are much larger than it, and Eris is even about the same size as Pluto. It is slightly better in quality. So later, the International Astronomical Union redefined this type of super-large asteroid as a dwarf planet, and therefore Pluto was kicked out of the nine planets of the solar system. This matter is still There was a lot of turmoil at one time, which caused a lot of controversy."

Gu Yuan turned around and pulled out a box under the bed, which was full of various astronomical magazines. He found one of the issues and spread it out among the crowd. It was an article titled "Conspiracy? Pluto was expelled from the Astronomical Union? The reason was..." article.

“There has been some resistance to reclassifying Pluto outside of the public, and even within the astronomical community. [40-41] Alan Stern, principal investigator for NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto, mocked the International Astronomical Union resolution, he noted that since less than 5% of astronomers voted for it, the decision was not representative of the astronomy community as a whole."

"Since the opposition is so strong, why does the International Astronomical Union do this?"

"It may be because it is more convenient to change the nine planets into the eight planets than to list the giant stars discovered one after another as planets, so that words such as the top ten and eleven planets will continue to appear in future discussions. Go." Gu Yuan shrugged and continued.

"Actually, what Stern said is not accurate. There are quite a few people who support the International Astronomical Union. Mike Brown, the astronomer who discovered Eris, also left a famous saying: People pass completely crazy, circus-like The program, somehow by chance, found the right answer. Even though the decision was long overdue. Even when strong emotions are involved, science eventually corrects itself."

"Well, I feel that Pluto is so pitiful. He obviously didn't do anything, but he was kicked out from the ranks of the nine planets." Qi Yu put his hands together and lowered his head, expressing his regret for Pluto who suffered inexplicably.

"It's all human behavior, and has nothing to do with the stars themselves. No matter what people do, whether we can see them or not, the stars are there forever." Gu Yuan stared at the starry night sky and said, "I used to I thought about discovering a new asteroid so that I could name it myself, but I found out later that it was impossible."

"Why?" Liu Qingsi expressed curiosity again.

"Because high-performance telescopes all over the world are observing, the large ones have basically been discovered, and the small and difficult-to-observe ones, if even they can't find them, with this simple astronomical telescope, it is even less likely to be seen. possibility."

"Look!"

Feng Ziqiu suddenly pointed at the night sky and exclaimed, and everyone's eyes followed the direction of his finger immediately.

I saw a meteor piercing the dark night sky rapidly, illuminating the entire sky for a flash.Before it can be seen clearly, the meteor is approaching in a blink of an eye and disappears in the black night, leaving a perfect crack in the sky, which is also real and poignant.

In a blink of an eye, the cracks slowly faded and melted, and the sky returned to its gorgeous tranquility.

"Did you see it just now? Although the time for the meteor shower has not yet arrived, there will occasionally be scattered meteors appearing, and the number is very small. If you can see it, you are very lucky."

"What? Did you see the meteor?! Where is it?" Qi Yu stared at the sky with his eyes wide open.

"It's already passed." Liu Qingsi replied.

"Ah-ah-I was distracted just now..." Qi Yu sat cross-legged on the floor, resting his chin with a lonely face, "I still want to make a wish..."

"Hey, as a modern person with rich scientific knowledge, don't be so entangled in such unfounded things."

"Why is there no basis? Meteors are stars that crashed into the atmosphere, which is the 'present tense'; the sky full of stars is just the shadows of ancient stars, which is the 'past tense'. To make a wish at that time, of course, you must ask the meteors to help. " Qi Yu retorted.

"Yo, you still know this?"

"It's written on it." Qi Yu held up an astronomy magazine in front of his chest, "Meteor showers are astronomical phenomena in the night sky where many meteors are emitted from a so-called radiant point in the sky. These meteors are Fragments called meteoroids are jets projected into the Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speeds while traveling in parallel orbits. Most meteoroids are smaller than a grain of sand, so almost all of them are destroyed in the atmosphere. Destroy without hitting the Earth's surface. See, 'now in progress'."

"Eh..." Gu Yuan's head was full of black lines, and he didn't know how to answer for a while.

At this moment, the message notification tone suddenly sounded on the mobile phone, saving the atmosphere that was about to disappear.

"How's your stargazing training going? I just saw a meteor that flashed by~"

It was Jiang Zifeng. Gu Yuan looked at the gleaming phone screen and blinked, then quickly typed a reply with the thumbs of both hands.

"all the best."

Almost as soon as the message was sent, a new reply popped up.

"Then, have you decided on the theme of everyone's column?"

"Eh?"

"If you don't make a decision quickly, it will be too late."

"There is an exam next week, and next week is the National Day holiday, and the activities of the Astronomical Club are coming up, so we don't have much time to waste."

"what happened?"

Facing the curious gazes of others, Gu Yuan held up the phone in front of them.

"Sister Zifeng wants us to quickly decide on the theme of each column."

"Hmm... For me, I want to write the story of the nine planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto. There must be a touching story behind each name." Liu Qing Si tilted her head and thought for a while, "And I have a lot to say about the part where Pluto was kicked out of the ranks of planets."

Even after listening to Gu Yuan's introduction, she still firmly used the title of "Nine Planets".

"I want to introduce asteroids." Feng Ziqiu went on to say, "Asteroids are huge in number and ordinary, and can only be named by a combination of numbers and letters. I want to let more people know about asteroids through my introduction." Planets are of interest. They deserve more attention."

"Good idea, Qi Yu, how about you?"

"I want to write..." Qi Yuya sat down, took out a copy of astronomy magazine from Gu Yuan's large box, and said with sparkling eyes, "Twelve constellations!"

"……Forehead."

Seeing the expression on her face, Gu Yuan probably understood that what she actually wanted to write was probably not an introduction to the origin of the twelve constellations, but a "Guide to Matching the Twelve Constellations"...

"What's wrong? That expression..." Qi Yu pouted contemptuously, "Don't believe me just because I act like I don't know much about astronomy."

"No, no... that's not what I meant. This proposition is very good." Gu Yuan waved his hands again and again, "However, in this case, the only thing left to me is..."

"Meteors and meteor showers." Liu Qingsi said.

"Well, let's leave it at that. The theme is set. I'll reply to Sister Zifeng right away."

(End of this chapter)