Bright Sword starts with the grenade flat.

Chapter 362 Reasons for Choosing Proxima
Liu Xiu Liu Xiu soon received a communication request from Blue Star.

Naturally, Liu Xiu would not refuse the communication request from Blue Star and answered it immediately.

When the video call was connected, Liu Qi was relieved to see that Liu Xiu was fine, and immediately asked Liu Xiu when he would be back.

However, in response to Liu Qi's question, Liu Xiu smiled and said:
"Not coming back! There is nothing left on Blue Planet worth our nostalgia! I plan to take Huairu with me and go to Proxima Centauri to explore the way for Blue Planet and see if there is any life on Proxima b!"

However, after hearing Liu Xiu's words, Liu Qi said:

"Then won't you come back and take away the originally planned crew members?"

When Liu Xiu heard this, he shook his head and said:
"No! This long distance is different from the Navigator Space Station. Even if there is any problem with the Navigator Space Station, Blue Planet is still able to repair it in time. But the Explorer is different. It is far away from Blue Planet. If there is a problem, it will be dead. They are still young!"

After saying this, Liu Xiu unilaterally cut off the communication without waiting for Liu Qi to say anything, and then drove the Explorer spacecraft to accelerate towards the direction of the Proxima Centauri system.

Then in a short while, Blue Star was left far away.

Although the speed of the blue planet has doubled after being accelerated by Jupiter's gravitational slingshot, it is still nothing compared to the Explorer spacecraft.

Furthermore, the materials on board the Explorer spacecraft had already been prepared long ago. You should know that the modification and construction of the Explorer spacecraft had been completed long before the Jupiter crisis, the internal ecological cabin had already been fully developed, and other materials and equipment had also been loaded on board long ago.

They could set off as soon as the Blue Planet orbited Jupiter, but no one expected that the crisis at Jupiter would be so great that the Explorer had to set out to carry out the mission of igniting Jupiter.

This was exactly what Liu Xiu wanted. After all, if he had set out normally, it would have been difficult for Liu Xiu to get rid of those people passing by!
Of course, what Liu Xiu and Liu Qi said about exploring Proxima Centauri first was true. After all, exploring Proxima Centauri also has an important purpose. That is, if it is found that Proxima Centauri B is not suitable for human habitation, then the Blue Planet can change its course in time.

In fact, the reason why the Wandering Blue Star Project chose Proxima Centauri is not only because Proxima Centauri is the closest star to the solar system, but more importantly, according to the conclusions drawn from previous observations, Proxima Centauri has a planet that may have life and is suitable for human habitation.

The planet that is most likely to have life is Proxima b, which is located in Alpha Centauri. Centauri is a triple star system, that is, there are three stars similar to the sun. They are named Alpha Centauri A, Alpha Centauri B and Alpha Centauri C. Among them, Alpha Centauri C is closest to the blue star, so it is also called Proxima, but the apparent magnitude of Proxima is only 11, which is too dim. Not only can it not be seen with the naked eye, but it is also not easy to observe it with ground-based telescopes. And Proxima b is orbiting around this Proxima.

Proxima b is believed to have life because it is in the habitable zone of the star Proxima Centauri. The temperature on it may be more habitable than that on Earth, and there may even be abundant liquid water.

The habitable zone refers to the area around a planet where the temperature is suitable for the existence of liquid water. After all, water is the source of life, so based on this feature, astronomers created the concept of the habitable zone. It is used to screen planets that may have life. It does not mean that it is suitable for life to survive or that life exists. The most typical example is Mars. Although it is in the habitable zone, there is hardly any trace of water on it, and there is no atmosphere suitable for human survival.

However, Proxima b has a mass of 11.2 times that of the Blue Star, and is only slightly larger than the Blue Star. It is million kilometers away from Proxima Centauri and has an orbital period of days. Proxima b is called the "second blue star" because of its similar size to the Blue Star. The star system it is in is much smaller than the solar system.

This is because Proxima Centauri itself is a red dwarf star, and its mass is only 10% of the Sun. So although Proxima Centauri b is very close to the star, its surface temperature is not too hot. And more importantly, Proxima Centauri's life cycle is much longer than that of the Sun.

Because the smaller the mass of a star, the smaller the gravity at its core, so the nuclear fusion reaction is naturally slower and the less hydrogen is required.

To give an example, with the same 100 liters of gasoline, although a truck can carry more things, it can only travel a maximum of two to three hundred kilometers. Although a car is light, its fuel consumption is lower. If the Qin L, which ranks first in fuel consumption, uses 100 liters of gasoline, it can even travel three to four thousand kilometers.

However, although Proxima B is in the habitable zone and its mass is similar to that of the Blue Star, there is a reason that may prevent Proxima from becoming a planet with life, because Proxima is likely to be tidally locked.

After all, Proxima b is very close to Proxima Centauri, only 5% of the distance between the sun and the blue star. They are likely to be in a state of tidal locking, that is, perhaps it takes the same time for it to rotate and revolve around the sun. So one side is always facing Proxima Centauri, and the other side is always facing away from it. The result is that one side is always daytime and the other side is always nighttime. There will be no alternation of day and night and the change of seasons. The side facing Proxima Centauri will be very hot, and the side facing away from it will be very cold.

Of course, there is another problem. Proxima b is only 5% of the distance between the blue star and the sun. Logically speaking, there should not be enough material to form planets so close to the star, so some scholars speculate that Proxima b may be an alien. In other words, it was formed far away from Proxima and then migrated here.

Of course, whether Proxima b is suitable for life, in addition to its magnetic field, mass and distance from the star, depends largely on whether it has an atmosphere, as well as the thickness and composition of the atmosphere.

If there is no atmosphere, the average temperature may be as low as -40 degrees Celsius. If the atmosphere is dense enough, it can not only block the ray storm like the magnetic field, but also play a role in heat preservation. And it can spread the heat to the side that is always dark.

If this is not the case, the side of the sky that is not illuminated by Proxima Centauri may not have enough energy to support the survival of life.

However, for now, humans on the Blue Star only know that Proxima B has a mass similar to that of the Blue Star and is in the habitable zone. As for the rest, we know nothing because we do not have a powerful enough telescope and Proxima Centauri is too far away from the Blue Star.

A distance of 4.2 light years may not sound far, but it is actually very far.

Of course, the reason why humans on Blue Planet care so much about whether there is life on Proxima Centauri is naturally because after arriving at Proxima Centauri, if they want to restore the ecological cycle on the surface of Blue Planet, it will take at least hundreds or even thousands of years to reach the normal level before Blue Planet. Therefore, if Proxima Centauri B is a habitable planet with life, it will naturally be extremely friendly to the development of mankind.

(End of this chapter)