Eight Hundred and Ninety-Three, the Brightest Star in the Sky
When it comes to alien plants, most people will instinctively think of worm trees, that is, the kind sent to the earth by aliens. Only a few people know that the kind on earth is actually just a kind of worm tree family.
Ye Han was one of them. As early as when the First Fleet was on an expedition to Jupiter, he had observed the photos of Jupiter at close range. At that time, Jupiter was still in a global freeze and could not see its surface.
But by the time the Second Fleet arrived at Jupiter, Jupiter had become a lush and habitable planet, with large forests visible on the surface.
Combining the prisoners' logs, it is not difficult to find that after the first expedition ended in failure, Io recovered quickly, and plants grew rapidly, covering the surface of the planet in a short time.
However, at that time, the plants on Jupiter were still mainly white and brown, and the green was almost invisible. Based on the analysis of the prisoner’s diary, it is very likely that aliens were preparing for Jupiter’s departure, and they planted seeds on the surface of the planet. A large number of insect trees, so a large amount of food can be harvested in a very short period of time, laying a solid material foundation for Io to fly to the earth.
Many biologists believe that although alien plants are not green, there must be something similar in function to chlorophyll in their cells.
But there was no market for this view, because Io was still near Jupiter at the time, and the light received there was only 4% of that on Earth, and the worm trees grew fast and well.
It can grow smoothly in the absence of light. No matter how you look at it, insect trees do not grow by photosynthesis.
According to human's understanding of the biological world, the worm tree should be a special plant that uses chemosynthesis to grow. However, human's understanding of living things is limited to the earth. God knows whether there are other growth methods for alien creatures.
Some scholars also studied what would happen if the insect tree was added with chlorophyll, but before the results of this research came out, various countries took the lead in banning this research to prevent those scientific lunatics from creating a new type of insect tree with unknown capabilities.
Since then, no research institution has been allowed to conduct research on modifying worm trees, and it is still the case today.
But no one expected that after Io Zero revived again, the first batch of plants growing on the surface were also green!
Now, one month later, the plants in the zero year of Jupiter are no longer the same as when they first sprouted, but have formed a lush green ocean, including patches of grasslands and large areas of shrubs, and large areas of forests must only be a matter of time .
Li Shili looked at the vegetation all over Jupiter, and couldn't help but sigh. There are still snow mountains and deserts on the earth, but there are green plants everywhere on Julius. Rainforest.
It's not surprising to think about it. Aliens are best at tinkering with creatures. What's the point of transforming a few plants that are suitable for deserts or other extreme environments?
He even came up with an idea that should never have appeared: It would be great if he could get the special plants cultivated by aliens. In that way, all the Gobi deserts on the earth could be turned into oases...
Of course, he was just thinking about it. Plants modified by aliens certainly have no problem adapting to the environment. Instead, he should worry about the consequences of alien plants invading the earth.
Another one, the Gobi and desert are now one of the important means for humans to resist insect swarms. Just imagine, if the Sahara Desert becomes a large oasis in the Sahara, how many giant insects can be raised? How many giant ants must rush into the oasis-like desert and advance all the way to North Africa?
Once upon a time, the Gobi Desert was an insurmountable barrier between human civilizations, and so far, they are still an unconquerable territory for insect swarms.
This reminded Li Shili of a sentence: Feng Shui turns around!
At this moment, an unusually conspicuous light suddenly flashed on the screen. This light came from the central part of the northern hemisphere of Europa. From the perspective of the battleship, there was a lush grassland, and there could be no reflective substances.
Speaking of reflective materials, we must talk about Europa, three-quarters of its surface area is covered by water, if the viewing angle is appropriate,
The sunlight reflected on the water surface will be extremely dazzling, making it the brightest star in the sky!
This is not a joke, nor is it a literati’s spring and autumn style of writing, but the real fact-Io is located 60 million kilometers in front of the earth, and its orbit around the sun is very similar to the earth’s orbit, and the positions of the two planets have hardly changed.
Every clear dawn, people who get up early can see an unusually bright star in the eastern sky. People with good eyesight can even find that the star is just a small crescent at the beginning. The footsteps gradually turned into a semicircle, and the brightness became higher and higher. It was not until dawn that its light was covered by the rising sun.
And the brightness of this star is not always the same, sometimes it is brighter, sometimes dimmer, but no matter what time it is, it is much brighter than the morning star!
This star is Jupiter. Observation shows that its brightness is caused by its rotation. When the land faces the earth, the brightness is lower, and when the ocean faces the earth, the brightness increases obviously, and the brightest part is always only a line of crescent moon, which is The sunlight reflected on the curved sea surface!
Venus is closer to Earth during its transit, but at any given time, Venus is not as bright as Europa. This is because Venus is surrounded by a thick layer of atmosphere, which is not as reflective as the water surface; secondly, when it transits the sun, Venus is between the earth and the sun, and it is brighter than the sun.
So Jupiter is definitely the brightest star in the sky today.
Of course, it doesn’t matter whether it’s the brightest or the darkest, and no one appreciates the unique reflection of Europa. Everyone’s first reaction when seeing it is to immediately think of aliens and giant insects.
The reflection Li Shili saw was not on the water surface, so it immediately caught his attention. At the same time, the eyes of others were also attracted by the flash.
Only a few seconds later, the flash appeared again, and Ye Han frowned: "This is not a natural phenomenon, zoom in on this point for me!"
The bridge officer in charge of the observation immediately manipulated the equipment to zoom in on the screen. The screen flickered several times in a row, and a grassland appeared on the screen. A few aliens could be vaguely seen standing on the grassland looking up at the sky.
"Continue!" Ye Han yelled suddenly.
The picture was zoomed in several times, and the group of aliens occupied half of the screen, and everyone finally saw the situation there clearly: among the several aliens, was an alien of unusually short stature, lying on his stomach in front of him. The giant worm was only bigger than a millstone, and the shell on the giant worm's back was crystal clear, like a bright gemstone, and it was extra large.