Chapter 127 Anomalies Discovered!

According to current theories, the upper limit of a planet's mass is about 13 times the mass of Jupiter.

Once the mass of a planet exceeds this value, its weight is enough to trigger deuterium nuclear fusion, thus becoming a small mass brown dwarf, out of the category of planets.

The mass of Jupiter is only about one thousandth of the sun.

In other words, the maximum mass of a planet can reach about one percent of the sun at most. If it is higher, it will fuse and evolve into a sub-star.

Xu Chuan said that the calculated mass has errors. According to the mass calculation error of Betelgeuse, the mass of Betelgeuse calculated by the astronomical community is about 11.6 to 16.6 times the sun. If the conditions are slightly relaxed, the mass remains between 10 and 20 times the mass of the sun.

The numbers between these masses are all calculated by traditional observations. Although they are not accurate, there is no problem in using them as references.

The mass of Betelgeuse calculated by the Xu-Weyl-Berry mass calculation equation is 23.871, which is calculated according to the maximum deviation range, that is, 23.87 to 10, and the mass deviation range ratio is 2.3, close to 2.4.

The mass of the companion star is calculated to be 2.7 solar masses through the formula, so even if the maximum deviation ratio is used, the mass of this companion star is more than one sun.

So as long as it is confirmed that this companion star really exists, then according to the calculated data, it must be a star.

The hydrogen envelope of Betelgeuse has a companion star, which has always been just a speculation in the astronomical community, and there is no evidence to prove it.

But today this incredible speculation is likely to come true.

More importantly, the diameter and mass of Betelgeuse and its companion star have been calculated, which makes Liu Xuan sigh.

The revolution in the astronomical community may be coming.

If it can be confirmed that the calculation equation of this junior brother can accurately calculate the mass of a star, then the law of universal gravitation, the mass-light relationship method, Kepler's third law of planetary motion, and the gravitational redshift method, which are methods of calculating the mass of stars, will basically be eliminated.

For the astronomical community, this is a knife to the underlying calculation method, and he doesn't know how big a sensation it will cause.

After completing the mass calculation of Betelgeuse in southern Yunnan, Xu Chuan did not leave. He planned to go to Qinghai with several senior brothers from the Department of Astronomy.

On the one hand, the data can be directly verified after it comes out.

On the other hand, he can talk to the astronomy experts at the Qinghai Astronomical Observatory about issues related to Betelgeuse.

His scientific intuition told him that the reason why the first set of observation data calculated two sets of data with extremely large deviations was probably because Betelgeuse had a companion star.

If there really is a star with a mass greater than the sun in the hydrogen envelope of Betelgeuse, what impact will it have on it? These are things that must be figured out.

After all, Betelgeuse has reached its old age and may explode in a supernova at any time in the future.

And whether the companion star will affect its magnetic poles during the supernova explosion is very critical.

Because from the scale of the universe, Betelgeuse is too close to the earth.

More than 600 light years is an insurmountable chasm in the eyes of humans, but if the magnetic poles change and the erupting gamma-ray burst is aimed at the solar system, then...

Qinghai, Qinghai Astronomical Observatory.

Xu Chuan stood on the roof of the observatory building and looked at the large radio telescope in the distance. There was a radio telescope array working there, collecting information about Betelgeuse, which was 640 light years away.

In one more day, the data he needed would be collected.

Unlike traditional optical telescopes, radio telescopes receive radio waves and can capture a lot of light that is invisible to the naked eye, while optical telescopes can only capture visible light.

Therefore, radio telescopes can see light with wavelengths many times shorter than that of optical telescopes, and can also see some details that optical telescopes cannot see.

For example, the polarization of stars, cosmic microwave background radiation, etc., are all things that optical telescopes cannot see.

In addition, optical telescopes are heavily affected by weather. Cloudy days, haze, and light pollution will cause optical telescopes to lose sensitivity.

Radio telescopes will not. The wavelengths they observe are mainly 30m-1mm, and electromagnetic waves of this wavelength will not be affected by the weather.

Therefore, radio telescopes can penetrate clouds, are not affected by meteorological conditions, can be observed day and night, and have the ability to work all day and night. In addition, the observed radiation waves are long and are not blocked by interstellar and galactic dust clouds, thus greatly expanding the scope of human observation of the universe.

These are the advantages of radio telescopes.

But relatively speaking, radio telescopes also have weaknesses. First, its imaging is processed by computers, and what is seen is not the true face of celestial bodies.

Secondly, the accuracy of radio telescopes is actually far inferior to that of optical telescopes.

Don't look at its high-sounding name, but in fact, the accuracy is much lower than that of traditional optical telescopes.

The resolution of an optical telescope with a diameter of 10 cm can reach about 1.4 points, and it can see details of 2 kilometers on the surface of the moon.

The world's largest movable radio telescope is the 100-meter diameter movable radio telescope in the Germanic country, but its resolution is only 33 points.

This number is not as good as the 30 points of the human eye.

That is to say, the moon is clearer to human eyes than it is to human eyes.

However, radio telescopes can operate online, that is, two or more radio telescopes receive radio waves from the same celestial body, and multiple beams interfere with each other, and their equivalent resolution can be equivalent to that of a single-aperture radio telescope with an aperture equal to the distance between two places.

This is a huge advantage that optical telescopes cannot do.

But in terms of accuracy, it is a fact that it cannot compare with optical telescopes.

So generally speaking, radio telescopes and optical telescopes are complementary. Both can observe a target at the same time, and then the data complement each other to obtain more comprehensive information.

This is the method he used to collect information about Betelgeuse this time.

Use the optical telescopes of the school and southern Yunnan for optical observations, and then use the radio telescope array of Qinghai to supplement it, so as to obtain comprehensive data.

A day passed quickly. On the morning of the sixth day, the array radio telescope stopped working, and the collected data was sent to the computing center for processing, which took about several hours.

For Xu Chuan and several senior brothers from Nanjing University, this period was undoubtedly very difficult.

The data collected by the radio telescope in the past 48 hours is crucial. On the one hand, comprehensive data can be used to more accurately calculate the diameter, mass, volume and other information of parameter four.

This is to determine whether the Xu-Weyl-Berry equation is capable of accurately calculating the stars in the distant universe.

This is of great significance to the astronomical community.

If more accurate values ​​of distant stars can be obtained, people can infer more information based on it.

For example, what stage of life a star is in, whether it is stable enough, whether there are other planets suitable for survival around it, whether there are other intelligent races, etc.

In addition, it also has a significant impact on the research of basic physics and high-energy physics.

Scientific progress requires a lot of experiments to verify hypotheses. In today's era, many theories can only be verified by experiments under extreme conditions such as high energy and high magnetic fields.

So Europe will build a huge particle accelerator LHC, but even so, many problems cannot be solved in the Earth laboratory.

And many astrophysical phenomena in the universe, such as pulsars, supernova explosions, and quasar accretion, naturally provide physical processes under extremely high energy conditions.

Observing these astronomical phenomena can help people test theories.

Whether it is relativity or quantum theory, there are a lot of viewpoints that need astronomical phenomena to prove.

It's just that these things are too far away for the current human beings and technological progress. These things are at the forefront of the top theories, so even if they are discovered, they will not bring much technological progress in a short time.

This is very similar to mathematical physics. The top mathematical physics are already studying things in the next few decades, hundreds of years, or even hundreds of years.

No one knows how long it will take for those cutting-edge theoretical results to be transformed into scientific research results.

It's even unknown whether they can be transformed into scientific and technological results.

This makes many people confused. What is the use of these theoretical mathematics, physics and astronomy?

Just like buying vegetables does not use calculus at all, what can you do if you can observe the data of Betelgeuse now? Can you fly over?

It's like when Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction, he was once despised and regarded as useless waste.

But if there were no theories, humans would probably still be burning coal to boil water and using steam engines. Today's lights are bright, and no one can see

These jobs always need someone to do them. Theory and technology must always be ahead, and most of the time, the forefront is theory.

Without the advancement of theory, science and technology cannot progress.

Perhaps the useless waste today will become the most important thing in the next ten or even dozens of years.

"Chuan, Chuan Shen, the preliminary calculation of the observation data of the radio telescope array has been completed."

In the office, Xu Chuan was perfecting the Xu-Weyl-Berry calculation equation in his hand. Suddenly, the door of the office was pushed open, and then a panting voice sounded in the office.

Xu Chuan's eyes lit up, and he quickly stood up and said, "Where is the data."

"Senior Brother Liu Xuan and the others are doing the second sorting. I came here to inform you in advance to be prepared. It will probably take four or five hours."

Xu Chuan nodded and said, "Take me over to see it."

At this point, he was not in the mood to continue to perfect the Xu-Weyl-Berry calculation equation. This can be done at any time, but the observation data of the radio telescope is related to the results of this research experiment.

At the Qinghai Astronomical Observatory, Xu Chuan followed the senior brother who reported the news to him to the computing center.

There is a small supercomputer here. The data observed by the radio telescope outside will be processed here. The observation data of Betelgeuse will naturally be processed here this time.

However, the data processed by the computer once was still a little different from the data he needed, so several doctoral students from the Department of Astronomy needed to process it again.

The data after the second simplification was what he needed.

"Senior Brother Liu, what's the situation?" Xu Chuan walked behind Senior Brother Liu Xuan, who was leading the team, and asked.

In front of the display screen, Liu Xuan looked up at Xu Chuan and replied: "It is still under analysis. Because this is the first time that an astronomical phenomenon that there may be a companion star in the hydrogen envelope of a star has been discovered, there is no corresponding data in the computer and it cannot be confirmed, so at present we can only manually check the abnormal data one by one."

"Please sit down for a while, I will finish the data on my hand."

After replying, he buried his head in front of the display screen again.

Xu Chuan nodded, leaned over slightly and looked at the display screen on the table. There were a series of curves and various tables, as well as various astronomical units recording data.

He could understand some of these things. He spent more than half a month to cram in order to convert the Xu-Weyl-Berry calculation equation and apply it to astronomy.

After all, even if the Xu-Weyl-Berry theorem can calculate the information of stars, it also needs data such as eigenvalues, boundary values, and asymptotic information.

And the observed star data, which ones meet these needs to be verified and checked, not just taking any information and putting it in to calculate it at will.

Time passed by bit by bit. In the computing center, several seniors from Nanjing University and researchers from the Qinghai Astronomical Observatory performed secondary calculations to simplify the observation data of parameter four.

At this moment, for Xu Chuan, who could only watch from the sidelines, time seemed particularly long.

I don’t know how long it has passed. Suddenly, a figure stood up and shouted excitedly to Liu Xuan across the experimental table:

"Senior Brother Liu, I found relatively abnormal data here. It is confirmed that the observed radiation flux is abnormal. I have made a similar comparison with the first set of data before. It is suspected that there is companion star data mixed in."