Reborn and become a Great Scientist

Chapter 101 49 Greenwich Observatory

The Royal Astronomical Society initially served not astronomers who studied science, but gentlemen of the upper class in England who had a certain love for astronomy.

Of course, there is no conflict between the two. Before the productivity of the UK improved, observing the stars overhead with a telescope was indeed a hobby that only gentlemen and aristocrats with money and leisure could afford.

Burlington Palace, where the Royal Astronomical Society is located, is located on Piccadilly Avenue in the city centre, close to Buckingham Palace and No. [-] Downing Street, the center of the United Kingdom.

If Eddington and Chen Muwu's destination was here, then they could easily reach the city center after getting off the bus.

But Eddington didn't intend to take Chen Muwu to the Astronomical Society at all, so the two didn't leave the station at all. Instead, they directly changed to the North London Railway at King's Cross Station to London Bridge Station, and then changed to the North London Railway Station. Greenwich's suburban railway.

This railway is the first suburban railway built in London, and also the first elevated railway in the world built in mid-air.

On this viaduct that appeared in this world more than 90 years ago, the train pulled by a coal-fired locomotive made Chen Muwu feel a strong steampunk style.

After leaving Greenwich Railway Station, go uphill and climb up the hill, which is the Greenwich Royal Observatory built on Greenwich Hill.

This place is not yet a tourist attraction open to the public like later generations. On both sides of the gate, there are royal guards in military uniforms.

The reason why it is so heavily guarded is that 30 years ago, there was an attempted "international terrorism" attack here, which was also the first time in British history.

A bomb was detonated in a park near the observatory, and the French anarchist who carried it died instantly.

A French anarchist wants to blow up British government agencies. Is it the government he wants to destroy, or does he just want to destroy the British government?
Eddington took out his ID card and shook it, and was quickly let go.

But when he arrived at Chen Muwu's place, even though Eddington came forward, his ID was checked over and over again by the guards. Finally, with suspicious eyes, Chen Muwu finally entered the gate of the observatory.

Different from the east and west hemispheres that are separated by the two meridians of 160 degrees west longitude and 180 degrees east longitude learned in middle school geography books, people now still use the prime meridian plus [-] degrees meridian to divide the east and west hemispheres by default.

When you come to the Greenwich Observatory, the first thing you want to see is naturally the prime meridian set on the ground.

Seeing this line, Chen Muwu also wanted to be like Fang Tangjing, jumping around on both sides of the Prime Meridian, shouting "I am in the Eastern Hemisphere!", "I am in the Western Hemisphere!".

But the only reason remaining in his brain, and the calm personality he had deliberately created all along, stopped him from doing so.

Of course, in addition to this longitude, Greenwich has another attraction, which is the standard pieces of various imperial units of length inlaid on one wall.

For this ghostly place, Chen Muwu didn't even want to look at it, and even wanted to spit it out.

Another iron rod stands on the roof of the observatory, with a red ball at the top of the iron rod.

The ball fell from the top suddenly, making a "bang", which startled him.

I remember reading in a popular science magazine before that this ball will fall on time at one o'clock every afternoon to give time to ships on the lower Thames.

"Mr. Eddington, our train journey looks very fast! We left Cambridge at ten o'clock in the morning and arrived at the Greenwich Observatory at one o'clock in the afternoon."

Eddington reluctantly took out his pocket watch, opened the cover and shook it at Chen Muwu: "Actually, it's already two o'clock, Mr. Chen, we don't have much time, so let's just go inside?"

It is not mentioned in the popular science book that the ball will fall once at two o'clock. Chen Muwu, who made an own goal, blushed, and could only follow Eddington into the observatory building. in front of the office.

However, this time, Eddington did not take off his hat to greet him like a gentleman after entering the door, and then greeted with cumbersome etiquette.

After knocking on the door, he didn't even wait for the people in the room to say "please come in", and directly led Chen Muwu to push the door in.

"Sir, great discovery! We have observed Planet X!"

Eddington shouted to the middle-aged man behind the desk.

The director of the Greenwich Observatory, the current royal astronomer, Sir Frank Dyson, who has the same mustache as Rutherford, was behind his desk when he was startled by two people who broke in suddenly.

Could it be that the terrorists are making a comeback again?
After seeing that one of the visitors was Eddington, Dyson's nervous mood had just calmed down a little.

Immediately afterwards, when he heard "Planet X" from Eddington's mouth again, his heart was pounding again.

The above phenomenon can also explain that light travels faster than sound.

After his brain fully accepted the information he had seen and heard, Dyson finally understood why Eddington, who had always been gentle and refined, acted so recklessly this time. The "discovery of Planet X" was indeed a major discovery in astronomy. .

Before he had time to introduce the young man behind him to Dyson, Eddington directly instructed Chen Muwu to put the photos he took these days and the paper on which he calculated the orbital formula of Planet X on Dyson's desk.

After a brief explanation by Eddington, Dyson felt that this time, the University of Cambridge Observatory may indeed have caught a big fish from the vast galaxy.

But astronomers all have a bad problem, that is, hearing is believing and seeing is believing. Eddington is like this, and Dyson is no exception.

He calmed Eddington's excitement first, and then he noticed Chen Muwu behind him: "Arthur, who is this gentleman?"

"Sir, this is Chen Muwu who caused a lot of trouble in the physics world before, this time this planet X;

"Chen, this is Royal Astronomer, Director of the Royal Observatory Greenwich, Sir Dyson."

The most influential person in the British astronomy community is not the president of the Royal Astronomical Society, but the Royal Astronomer.

This title will only be awarded to one person at the same time, and the title winner will automatically become one of the royal officials. As the king's astronomical advisor, it is equivalent to one of the king's ministers.

This is why, after Eddington reacted to his faux pas, he would respect Dyson.

Dyson is also a graduate of Trinity College and a senior of Eddington and Chen Muwu.

Chen Muwu now felt that although he was lucky to be in the Cavendish Laboratory, he was even luckier to be in Trinity College than to be in Cavendish.

From the king to the prime minister, from the president of Cambridge University to the dean of Trinity College, plus today's royal astronomer, the leaders of all walks of life in the UK are basically related to Trinity College.

If Chen Muwu wants to speculate, then his status as an alumnus of Trinity College will also become an increasingly valuable brand name.

Like Eddington, Dyson was also an enlightened physicist who had long supported the theory of relativity.

In 1919 after the end of World War I, British astronomers went to the southern hemisphere to observe the total solar eclipse in two groups to verify the correctness of the general theory of relativity.

Eddington led the team to Principe Island in West Africa, and the captain of another expedition to Brazil was Dyson in front of him.

After Eddington's mutual introduction, Chen Muwu quickly reached out and shook Dyson's hand on the other side of the desk: "Sir, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Although, as Eddington said, Chen Muwu did cause a few disturbances in the physics world, but those were not Dyson's old line after all, which made the director not so interested.

In fact, many astronomers in this era have switched careers from mathematics. The two Eddington and Dyson in front of us are the first and No.2 of their two graduates of the mathematics department of Cambridge University. .

But when Eddington said that Chen Muwu was also the discoverer of Planet X, Dyson couldn't help but admire him.

"Young man, I've heard of your name a long time ago. I didn't expect that we would meet here, and I didn't expect that you would give me a surprise gift as soon as we met."

He no longer politely asked Chen Muwu about the discovery process of this planet X—these should be questions that reporters will ask later—but directly asked the two people, “About this planet X, what do you think we should do?” What can I do?"

"Of course we should publish the results before those Yankees!" Eddington said with great pride, "Sir, you, plus me, will get President Dreyer from the Royal Astronomical Society." Please come, the three of us will observe the trajectory of this planet again at the Greenwich Observatory tonight. If it is confirmed that the star on the photo is indeed a new planet in the sun, we will report to you tomorrow morning. Spread the exciting news to the world!
"As for you, Chen, I think you don't need to rush to prepare for the writing of the paper on the new planet. Instead, you should prepare the manuscript in your stomach. Think about what you should do when you face the reporters who broke the threshold tomorrow. What did they say!"

After making a decision, the three of them split up. Dyson called the Royal Astronomical Society in the city and asked the duty secretary there to inform President Dreyer that he must come to the Greenwich Observatory before dark tonight. .

Eddington took Chen Muwu out of the observatory building and came to a nearby house with a dome.

Under the dome is a 30-inch refractor telescope built by the Greenwich Observatory at a huge cost 28 years ago, and it is now the largest refractor telescope in the UK.

Chen Muwu thought of the Cepheid variable star project in his mind again, but as Eddington said, the immediate priority is not this, but this mysterious planet X.

Cold toast and cold caviar was a simple dinner for the three of them in the observatory. After dark, the president of the Royal Astronomical Society, Dreyer, arrived in a hurry on the last train.

Because the ticket was bought late, the tickets for the first-class car were sold out long ago, so he could only choose the third-class car of the lowest class, so his clothes were also covered with a layer of soot.

Dreyer is not British, but a Dane who has been living in Oxford University. Last year, he succeeded Eddington as the president of the Royal Astronomical Society.

So he didn't have the stinking blemish of the British. When he came to the observatory, he didn't care to clean up the soot on his body, but went directly to Dyson and Eddington and asked them what happened to call him in such a hurry. something happened.

Eddington told him the ins and outs of the matter, and Dreyer was shocked when he heard it.

One of the top astronomical telescopes in the UK, plus three top physicists in the UK, with these endorsements, as long as the new star can be observed at the Greenwich Observatory tonight according to the calculated trajectory, it will be It can be finally confirmed that the mysterious planet discovered by Chen Muwu is the ninth planet in the solar system other than Neptune that people have been looking for for a long time.

Unlike these three excited astronomy bosses who are very excited, Chen Muwu is only very sleepy now.

After staying up for several nights, he even fell asleep leaning against the back of the chair behind him.

……

It wasn't until exclamations and applause came from his ears that he was woken up again.

"Call, call Fleet Street and tell them that we have discovered the ninth planet in the solar system!" Dyson, who reacted from the shock, shouted excitedly.

"Don't bother, sir. I think these reporters are now guarding the gates of the Greenwich Observatory, and now you only need to order them to come here."

After Eddington finished speaking, he patted Chen Muwu on the shoulder again: "Young man, go wash your face and wake up. The next interview is up to you."

In fact, the reporters of these newspapers and radio stations rushed to Greenwich from London city last night on the same last train as Delaire.

And it was Eddington who informed them.

He had seen this new planet in the Cambridge telescope last night, so he was sure that it would be found in the Greenwich telescope tonight as a certainty.

So after Dyson finished calling the Royal Astronomical Society, he also took the time to call several major newspapers on Fleet Street who had a good relationship with him.

And the reason why he met with the Hebei newspaper office dates back to last year when he helped Chen Muwu publish a paper and punched the editor of the "Philosophy Journal".

It was not easy for the reporters. They stood outside the Greenwich Observatory in the cold winter night for half the night.

Seeing someone coming out of the building and coming towards them, everyone knew that the matter about the planet should have been settled, and it seemed that it was a good result.

The Greenwich Observatory opened a conference room, which can be regarded as a small press conference site.

Reporters swarmed in, trying to get themselves a front-row seat where they could raise their hands and ask questions.

The staff of the observatory brought them several pots of freshly brewed coffee, and after a while, the Royal Astronomer Dyson and his party arrived slowly.

The reason for the delay was that although Planet X had already been seen in the telescope, it was tentatively determined after a simple calculation by the staff of the observatory that this planet was the one that colleagues in the astronomy community all over the world had been working on for so many years. The search for the ninth planet of the solar system.

Seeing someone enter the room, the already buzzing conference room suddenly had more problems.

"Sir Dyson, I am a reporter from The Times. Could you tell us something about this new planet?"

"I am The Daily Telegraph..."

Dyson stretched out his hands and made a gesture of pressing down: "Everyone, stay calm, stay calm, and there is still a long time before dawn, enough for you to conduct interviews."

A group of four sat in the front row facing the venue, and the majestic president of the Royal Astronomical Society, Dreyer, was squeezed into a seat in the farthest corner.

The reporters were also very curious why an East Asian man with black hair and yellow skin sat on the rostrum next to Dyson in the middle position.

"Sir Dyson, could you please tell us something about this new planet? Who was the first to discover it?"

"This afternoon, Professor Eddington of the University of Cambridge came to me with a photo and said that they might have discovered a remarkable event. Tonight, after observations and calculations at the Greenwich Observatory, we can announce here that the preliminary It is judged that after so many years of hard work, mankind has finally found the ninth planet in the solar system."

As soon as Dyson's words fell, the reporters turned to point their finger at Eddington: "So, Mr. Eddington, are you the first to discover this new planet?"

"No, no, that's not the case." Eddington didn't mean to take credit for himself at all, but stretched out his flat palm and introduced Chen Muwu to the reporters, "It wasn't me who discovered this planet, It is this young man from China who is a student of Trinity College, Cambridge University, Chen Muwu."

In the past year, although Chen Muwu's name has appeared in the news every now and then, he has always been "a dragon who sees the head but never the tail". No newspaper has ever published his photo, so at the beginning, no one knew what this young man was. No matter who they are, no one will associate the "two" of them together.

When they finally found out that this person was Chen Muwu, the reporters in the conference room were amazed again.

"Mr. Chen, can you tell us how you discovered this new planet?"

Chen Muwu told the truth, since he went to the Cambridge University Observatory to find Eddington two months ago, how he learned how to operate the astronomical telescope with him, how he faced the dark and bright night sky in front of the boring telescope day after day, feeling alone looking for the same lonely star.

The discovery of a new planet that humans have been pursuing for a long time is already a very interesting news.

And this discoverer is still a Chinese, a Chinese who has made a great reputation in the UK before.

Combining the two pieces of news together, it is difficult to keep public opinion from exploding.

(End of this chapter)