A Man of Science and Engineering in Troubled Times Wandering in the Late Qing Dynasty

Chapter 476 Unsolved Mysteries
In addition to the daily necessities factory, Li Yu continued to spend a lot of effort debugging the core automotive parts and radio factories with Chinese workers who returned from the United States and workers from Germany.

It’s just that the Republic of China lacked too many resources, and it would take a long time to open up and establish the domestic upstream and downstream industrial chain. At present, many parts cannot be manufactured domestically.

Li Yu knew that this was a long-term process, and he could only temporarily purchase from abroad, and then slowly cultivate other domestic national enterprises.

——Even in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, global trade was already inseparable.

Calculating the time with his fingers, Li Yu felt that Kozlov, the Russian cultural relics dealer, should have been almost killed by the radium water, but Li Yu was still worried, so he sent a telegram to the Russian Geographical Society.

"Dear fellow scholars of the Geographical Society, I am Li Yu. After my recent sky survey, I found that the orbit of an asteroid in the sky is very strange. After mathematical calculations, I guess that it is likely to hit the earth. I estimate - just Estimate - the possibility of falling into Siberia is very high. This is an unusual thing, I hope you can pay attention to it."

What Li Yu mentioned was of course the Tunguska explosion in 1908, which was regarded as the biggest unsolved mystery of the early twentieth century.

The Russian Geographical Society was very shocked after receiving Li Yu's telegram. The meteorite hitting the earth was a super sensational event.

However, Russia does not have a good observatory and cannot confirm it, and asteroids are generally very small and extremely difficult to observe.

But the Russian Geographical Society is very worried. Even if they don't understand astronomy, after mathematical calculations, they can easily know that as long as the diameter of the asteroid is slightly larger, it will be a fatal disaster for the earth; if the diameter exceeds one kilometer, humans may become dinosaurs.

Even if it is not so big, if a super asteroid with only a few dozen meters hits a certain city, it will still be a disaster.

The Russian Geographical Society quickly sent a telegram back to Li Yu: "Dear Mr. Li Yu, academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, your news made us all very nervous. But we have a very big doubt, why did it hit our Russian territory? "

Li Yu was a little too lazy to explain, so he returned "your Russian territory". Many places were taken away, okay?

However, Li Yu replied calmly: "Everything is just my estimate. After all, there are many uncertainties in the trajectory of the asteroid after it enters the atmosphere."

The Russian Geographical Society found another observatory, but Russia has never paid enough attention to astronomy and was unable to conduct such extremely detailed observations.

They don't need to observe anymore, because the asteroid is really hitting us.

On the morning of June [-], near the Tunguska River on the shores of Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia, someone saw a blue light streaking across the sky. It was extremely dazzling, almost as bright as the sun.

As the blue light got closer and closer, it gradually turned red. In less than 10 minutes, people who were watching the wonders of the sky with great interest suddenly heard a deafening explosion, which was blown away by air waves even though it was very far away.

Towns hundreds of kilometers away also felt the shaking, as if it was the end of the world.

In the days after the explosion, abnormal phenomena such as strong winds, abnormal noises, vibrations, and gray clouds often occurred in the Tunguska region.

Logically speaking, an official inspection team should be organized for such a big matter, but the current Russian state affairs are in turmoil, and there is no time to organize an inspection team.

This was true in history, but it is a little different now, because the Russian Geographical Society actually received Li Yu's warning in advance!

Shocking!

The Russian Geographical Society immediately sent a telegram to Li Yu to inform him.

Li Yu immediately replied: "If possible, it is best to send one of your expedition teams to conduct observations. It will be a great geographical discovery."

Li Yu knew very well that the only expedition team the Russian Geographical Society could take out now was Kozlov's team. If he went to Tunguska, he would not be able to go to Blackwater City.

No one knows about Blackwater City now. It is just a vague legend without even a trace of text; instead, there has been a big explosion in Tunguska that shocked Asia and Europe.

The Russian Geographical Society decided to let him go to Siberia in his own country.

Kozlov actually didn't want to go because he had been feeling unwell recently and would suffer from severe diarrhea.

But the Geographical Society pressed hard, so he had no choice but to set off.

Siberia is a land of bitter cold, so Kozlov increased his intake of radium water. Fortunately, it was given by Li Yu, so he didn't feel distressed after drinking it.

Soon after, Kozlov gave his first report on what he saw and heard at the accident site:
“After many days of exploration, we found no impact craters in the area, and we did not even find any fragments of meteorites;
But in the center of the explosion, there was a piece of charred trees that did not fall down, which was very strange; the surrounding trees fell radially in all directions, like a fluttering butterfly. "

After the Russian Geographical Society received the report, it then sent the situation to Li Yu, "Dear Academician Li Yu, some details of the situation at the scene seem to be inconsistent with the meteorite impact."

The Russian Geographical Society also reported in newspapers at the same time. The most important thing is that they stated that they had received a telegram warning from Li Yu in advance.

This immediately caused a stir, and the Tunguska explosion immediately became a "hot search".

After the diplomatic missions from various countries learned the news, they all asked Li Yu to find out about the situation.

Li Yu held another salon in his mansion. Not only ministers from many countries attended, but also some newspaper reporters.

The most interesting thing was that the German minister asked first if Russia had invented any terrible weapons.

Russian Minister Resal said angrily: "Are you kidding? How can there be such a powerful weapon?"

According to later estimates, the Tunguska explosion had an energy equivalent to at least 1000 million to 2000 million tons of TNT, which is the power of a kilogram of Hiroshima boys.

The views of American Minister Rou Keyi coincided with that of the German Minister: "Maybe you didn't expect it to be so powerful."

Russian Minister Resal snorted: "I would say that Tesla, who built Wardenclyffe Tower on Long Island, New York, carried out artificial lightning, and falsely claimed that he could transmit energy over long distances, is the most suspect!"

Resal's speculation had many supporters, and even in later generations, some people believed that the matter was related to Tesla.

(Tesla’s inner monologue: If only I had this ability!)
U.S. Minister Rou Keyi said categorically: "Impossible! We Americans have always insisted on an open door and will not engage in any acts of aggression. We don't even have many troops! How could we engage in such a terrifying and aggressive approach?"

Li Yu laughed out loud after hearing this.

Rou Keyi asked: "Mr. Li Yu, why are you laughing?"

Li Yu coughed slightly, turned serious, and then said: "Based on the blue fire and violent explosions in the sky at the scene, it is estimated that an asteroid impact is the most likely. You should be grateful that it did not cause any personal or property damage."

Russian Minister Resal said: "I read the second wave of reports sent by Kozlov. There was a long and large gap at the scene. It may have been a natural gas explosion caused by the earthquake." The Belgian Minister agreed: "I I have studied geology and found that there were several trees that did not fall in the center of the explosion, and all the surrounding trees fell in a radial pattern, which is very consistent with the situation of a gas explosion. Not to mention that Siberia is already rich in natural gas."

Li Yu immediately retorted: "If it is really natural gas, how can we explain the blue fireball in the sky?"

A reporter from the Beijing-Tianjin Times asked: "Mr. Li Yu, we no longer know how to report. Isn't there the clearest possibility?"

Li Yu said: "I have no way of knowing. After all, I can't go to the scene. But I can give a guess. No craters or meteorite debris were found at the scene. It may be because the asteroid that hit it was an icy comet, and there will naturally be no debris after the explosion. "The fact that a few trees in the center did not fall down may be because the icy comet disintegrated after violent friction with the Earth's atmosphere and exploded in the sky."

The reporter nodded: "Mr.'s guess is very logical."

Li Yu said: "This explanation is still flawed, because it is difficult for comets made of ice to get close to the earth's surface. So I still prefer that an asteroid with a diameter of 60 meters disintegrated and exploded in the air."

"But that still doesn't explain the lack of debris," the reporter said.

The reporter asked a very sharp question, but it was already the most reasonable explanation.

Li Yu thought for a while and had no choice but to throw out a guess that had just appeared before he traveled through time:

"There is also a possibility that an asteroid made of iron and nickel with a diameter of 200 meters made a water drift in the earth's atmosphere."

"Wasted?" Everyone was even more confused.

Li Yu explained: "This asteroid passed through the Earth's atmosphere at an extremely high speed. The lowest point was just in the Tunguska region. The powerful energy caused a big explosion. But it itself reached an altitude of more than 10 kilometers. Being ejected, the whole process is very similar to floating in water. For asteroids, if the incident angle is right, the atmosphere can be seen as water."

The reporter said: "Mr.'s statement seems to explain why there are no craters and debris."

Li Yu smiled and said: "It's still a hypothesis."

The reporter sent the article out the next day, and newspapers everywhere reported it on the front pages.

And because Li Yu made predictions in advance, many people worshiped Li Yu even more.

But at the same time, there is also panic among the people. What everyone is worried about is whether there will be other larger asteroids hitting the earth?
Many wealthy people are "preparing for a rainy day", and some have even begun planning to build doomsday bunkers.

There are people in society who crazily advocate "doomsday theories" and want to establish organizations such as doomsday churches and persuade people to donate money.

Russian education is relatively backward in Europe, and many people believe in doomsday theories. Some people are even asking: "Why is Russia the one that bombed? Is it a punishment from God?"

The Roman Catholic Church took this opportunity to ridicule the Russian Orthodox Church, saying that God would punish them because they were not pious enough.

Anyway, discussions everywhere are now a mess.

There was no other way. Several major news agencies unanimously requested Li Yu to publish a more authoritative article to eliminate the public's panic.

To untie the bell, one must tie the bell. Li Yu was the first to mention it, so he had no choice but to shoulder the responsibility.

Considering the current panic, Li Yu did not continue to discuss the extinction of ancient creatures, such as dinosaurs.

Instead, he discussed matters directly and talked about astrophysics.

It just so happened that Li Yu had the super famous title of discovering Pluto, and he had a strong voice in the field of astronomy, so everyone believed in him.

Li Yu immediately wrote a manuscript quickly.

In fact, there's really nothing to be afraid of.

Before Li Yu's crossing, the space agency had detected many asteroids that might hit the earth, and there were also reports that asteroids were going to hit the earth from time to time.

In 2023, NASA directly predicted that on Valentine's Day in 2046, an asteroid numbered 2023DW might hit the earth.

This caused a sensation at the time. Some people were extremely frightened; some said they were tired of it; some even said, come on, let's destroy it together!

But the National Aeronautics and Space Administration itself said that the probability of impact is very small, about 50 in [-] to [-]; and the diameter of the asteroid is only about [-] meters, which is about the same size as the one in Tunguska.Even if it flies over, if the angle is slightly off, it will be quickly consumed by the earth's atmosphere. When it falls on the earth's surface, it will be at the end of its power and will not cause much damage.

More importantly, the location of the Earth is simply a chosen place, with a massive planet—Jupiter—not far from its orbit.

Jupiter acts as a protective umbrella for the Earth, attracting most of the threatening slightly larger asteroids to itself.

Later, there was a very sensational collision of SL9 with Jupiter.If this group of comets hit the earth, they would really smash the earth into pieces.

After the manuscript was issued, it indeed dispelled most people's doubts, but soon many people came up with the Earth Luck Theory and believed that they were unique existences in the universe because they discovered that there were so many harsh conditions for the birth of life. There are so many threats, and I am simply a lucky race like a god.

Of course, there are still people who pretend not to see Li Yu’s report and still believe in the doomsday theory.

Anyway, in the 21st century, many people still believe in the Mayan doomsday theory, let alone the early [-]th century when science was underdeveloped.Li Yu was not surprised at all, he only did his part, others believed it or not, they couldn't control that much.

But Li Yu was very "concerned" about Kozlov's health.

He specifically found Russian Minister Resal again to learn about the investigation of the Kozlov scientific expedition team in the Tunguska region.

The Russian minister thought that Li Yu was only concerned about scientific affairs, so he showed him some telegrams sent from Russia. The contents were basically about the exploration of the Tunguska region by the Kozlov expedition.

By the next few letters, Kozlov's tone was no longer the same.

According to the scientific expedition team members, Kozlov's diarrhea is now more severe, he is very weak, and his life seems to be in danger.

Even if Li Yu doesn't understand medicine, he can guess that long-term severe diarrhea is closely related to intestinal cancer.

In the Russian legation, Li Yu still expressed his "sadness" and "concern" in a decent way: "Scientific research and exploration missions are very dangerous. I hope Mr. Kozlov is safe."

(End of this chapter)