Chapter 128 Something More Valuable

Hearing this, Liu Xuan stood up suddenly and walked over quickly: "Let me take a look."

"Here, in this set of data, the radiation flow anomaly began at 23:51:32 on April 24 and lasted until it disappeared at 23:56:09 on April 24, lasting less than five minutes. , the flow amplitude increased by nearly three points at its highest, and showed a peak shape, from weak to strong, then weakened, and finally disappeared. "

"Suspected companion star data, but it cannot be ruled out that it is the atmospheric activity of Betelgeuse itself"

Liu Xuan pulled up a chair and sat down in front of the computer. After carefully watching the abnormal data, he decisively stood up and issued work arrangements to other NTU students in the computing center.

"Cao Yang, Meng Can, please pause your unfinished data analysis first, find the data at 23:51 on April 24, and confirm that it starts at 23:51 on April 24, no, from 23:50 Start and observe whether there are other abnormalities in the data, and record them if any."

"Weicheng, please sort out the previous data and get a detailed data of Betelgeuse to me, including the first set of abnormal data compiled before, and send it to me as well."

"."

Arrangements came one by one from Liu Xuan's mouth. Of course, he only made arrangements for NTU students, and it was not his turn to direct the staff of the Institute of Astronomy.

After the senior finished handling the matter, Xu Chuan stepped forward and asked about the situation.

Liu Xuan: "It's still unclear whether these abnormal data come from the companion star, but there is hope."

"If it is a companion star, other data from 51 minutes to 56 minutes will also be abnormal, such as luminosity, temperature, spectrum, color, and radiant energy. There must be some abnormal data mixed in."

"Based on this time, combined with the detailed data of Betelgeuse, the orbital period of the companion star can be roughly calculated. As long as the orbital period is determined, the approximate return period time of the next companion star can be locked. As long as the occurrence of these abnormal data is confirmed again, It’s confirmed that the companion star actually exists.”

Xu Chuan nodded and said, "Thank you for your hard work. Leave it to me to calculate the return period. Just send the data to my email. I have learned some astronomy before and know how to calculate it."

Although he didn't know much about astronomy, he had no problem calculating the orbit and return period of a star.

The theorems applied to these things are quite basic, and the amount of calculation is not very large.

With all the data, he could finish it in a few hours at most.

Liu Xuan nodded and said: "Okay, then I will speed up the progress and try to analyze all the data tonight."

After getting the data, Xu Chuan didn't waste any time. He directly found a seat in the calculation center and sat down. He asked for some A4 paper and pens and started calculating the companion star data in Betelgeuse's hydrogen envelope on the spot.

The job wasn't difficult for him, just a little more complicated.

After all, Betelgeuse's hydrogen envelope is used to calculate an internal companion star. Many data are inaccurate and need to be estimated. This will also cause the final calculated return period to be inaccurate and have a large error. .

But it doesn't matter if there is an error, as long as a return time point can be determined and one more observation is enough.

If the same abnormal data can be observed again during the return cycle, it can be determined that there is a companion star in Betelgeuse's hydrogen envelope.

After all, it has periodicity and is almost completely abnormal from the observation data of Betelgeuse, which is enough to prove that the observed anomalies are not caused by the activities of Betelgeuse itself.

This is not to say that stars do not have periodic activities. Each star has its own unique activity point, and there are many periodic ones.

But the activity cycles of stars are generally relatively long.

For example, the sun, the main star of the solar system and the closest star to the earth, has long been discovered by scientists to have periodic activities such as sunspots and flares on the sun's surface.

The activity cycle is about 11 years.

During this 11-year activity cycle, the internal activities of the sun will cause prominences, flares, sunspots, etc. on the sun's surface to appear in an activity process from low tide to high tide and then to low tide.

During the peak period of solar surface activity, solar radiation and solar wind will cause changes in some materials in the earth's air and on the ground, and may even change the earth's climate.

For example, spacecraft such as artificial satellites, space stations, spacecrafts, and detectors in space are likely to be damaged by solar winds that travel hundreds to thousands of kilometers per second.

Or the peak period of solar surface activity will produce a large number of solar wind particles, which will reach the earth's surface through various forms such as auroras and particle storms, causing damage to the earth's power supply system and so on.

Although Xu Chuan does not know the specific length of Betelgeuse's activity cycle, it will certainly not be short.

Judging from the observation data of this scientific research experiment on Betelgeuse, the first abnormal data of the companion star was observed on March 27, and the second time, that is, the abnormal data was discovered on April 2. No. 14.

If it is determined that these two sets of data are companion stars, then the return period of the companion star is only twenty-seven days, less than a month, and may even be shorter.

After all, it was nearly a month from March 27th to April 24th. They were not observing Betelgeuse all the time. They also did not observe whether the intermediate companion star had returned once or multiple times. have no idea.

"560~752."

In the computing center, Xu Chuan exhaled as he looked at the calculated data on the manuscript paper.

This is the companion star return cycle time calculated according to the data provided by the astronomical team, and it is also the revolution time of this companion star.

Oh, the unit of this data is hours, which is about 23 to 31 days when converted into days.

The time deviation is a bit large, reaching a deviation of more than one week, but this is the most accurate number that can be calculated based on the current data.

It also conforms to the 27-day interval between the two abnormal data observed before, indicating that the calculated return cycle time is credible to a certain extent.

Then the rest is to wait for another month.

If abnormal data can be observed again in the next return cycle, the data can be used to confirm that there is indeed a companion star inside Betelgeuse.

This discovery is of great significance to the astronomical community.

The night passed quickly. After Xu Chuan calculated the return cycle of the companion star, several senior brothers from Nanjing University also completed the analysis of the radio telescope observation data.

Finally, it was determined that from 23:45 on April 24th to 0:09 on April 25th, all the data of the observed parameter 4 showed abnormalities.

A number of abnormal data that did not conform to Betelgeuse itself appeared in the data of luminosity, surface temperature, spectrum, radiation flux, radiation energy, etc.

In particular, the spectral data had large anomalies.

Today, Betelgeuse is a red supergiant with a spectrum of M1-M2Ia-Iab type, which is already confirmed.

So in a short period of time, no matter how it moves, the spectral data it emits will not be too far from this spectrum.

But in the abnormal data tonight, G-type spectral data was analyzed.

This type of spectral data should not appear on a red supergiant like Betelgeuse.

Stars with this kind of spectral data should be similar to the Sun and Auriga, which have G-type spectral data.

This also confirms that Xu Chuan's previous calculation of the mass of the companion star was not a problem, and it met the spectral standards of the corresponding mass star.

In addition, there are some significant differences in the radiation data.

Only 13% of Betelgeuse's radiation energy is emitted through visible light, and most of the radiation is in the infrared band.

If the eyes can sense the wavelengths of all radiation, then Betelgeuse, which is 640 light years away, can become the brightest star in the sky, brighter than the sun.

But in this abnormal data, it can be clearly observed that the weight of radiation energy in the visible light band has increased by nearly 7%.

This data is very abnormal, enough to show that there is a problem with its source.

Under comprehensive judgment, the probability of a companion star existing inside the hydrogen envelope of Betelgeuse has increased to more than 95%.

They are getting closer and closer to the truth.

At more than one o'clock in the morning, the computing center is still brightly lit, and a lot of people have gathered.

Not only a few seniors from the Department of Astronomy of Nanjing University, but also people from the Qinghai Astronomical Observatory, were blown over after hearing the news.

Xu Chuan and several seniors from Nanjing University sorted out the data from the beginning to the end of this scientific research experiment, removed the huge amount of observation data, retained the key data points and calculation process, and copied the data in multiple copies and distributed them to the researchers of Qinghai Astronomical Observatory.

"Incredible, this is really incredible."

"From your observation data, there is indeed a star that has never been discovered hidden in the outer atmosphere of Betelgeuse."

"This is a major discovery in the astronomical community!"

"The spectrum, radiation flux, and radiation energy are all different, which is enough to confirm it."

"Hiss~, how did you find this?"

"."

The computing center of Qinghai Astronomical Observatory, the researchers who work here all year round were so shocked that their jaws almost dropped to the ground after getting the research data of Xu Chuan and his team.

There is a star in the body of Betelgeuse?

This incredible thing stimulates everyone's brain.

For the astronomical community, this is no less than a world-class problem being solved, and leaving countless problems waiting for them to solve.

If the data in their hands is published, astronomical stations around the world will turn their attention to Betelgeuse, which is 640 light years away.

Because this will not only bring new astronomical knowledge, but also set off a huge wave around the world, and bring countless scientific research funds to the astronomical community.

At least, countries must figure out what impact this companion star has on Betelgeuse, whether it will cause Betelgeuse to explode in a supernova ahead of time, and whether it will pose a threat to the earth.

What is more critical and valuable is not the observational research discovery that there is a companion star in Betelgeuse.

It is the calculation method of various data in this data!