Chapter 283 Shouldn’t it be a waste of time and energy? (8.2K)
"What?"
In the shed.
William Whewell was flipping through the observation records in front of him, and asked Xu Yun and others with curiosity:
"Professor Gauss, classmate Luo Feng, is this the 'Conan Star' you are looking for?"
I only see this moment.
On several of the observation records in his hand, a small dot was drawn in a circle.
Only a few traces of these small dots can be seen with the naked eye. They can definitely be found if you look carefully, but they are usually ignored.
Xu Yun smiled and nodded. He had simply checked the image just now and could confirm that Gauss had found Pluto:
"That's right."
William Whewell seemed to be a little confused. He compared the two black and white photos and muttered:
"But the circles in these two photos are one on top and one on the bottom. How can we tell that they are the same star?"
Xu Yun curled his lips towards Gauss when he saw this, and both of them showed a hint of helplessness on their faces.
no way.
Many times, front-end scientific research projects are like this.
The results that scientists have worked so hard to achieve are somewhat inexplicable and confusing in the eyes of some people.
However, those people are not necessarily malicious denials or brainless arguments, but there are real cognitive barriers.
When seeing some data that exceeds common sense, the question will arise subconsciously: "Can modern technology achieve this kind of accuracy?"
For example, LIGO in later generations.
Everyone knows that it detected gravitational waves, but few people know how ridiculously accurate this thing is.
Its arm is 4km long, and the light path is reflected 400 times inside, so the laser light path length reaches 1,600km.
This isn't the end yet.
The gravitational waves it detects are essentially fluctuations with an amplitude of one thousandth of the proton radius coming from more than a billion light-years away.
This is like a typhoon raging in the Pacific Ocean. You throw a pebble on the shore of Shanghai, and he detects the ripples caused by the pebble on the beach in California.
How many ordinary people can avoid being confused?
Therefore, some practitioners Xu Yun knew would explain something to others in WeChat Moments or Weibo at first, but then they simply stopped caring about it.
Broken.JPG.
This is still the case in 2022, let alone 1850, when the modern scientific system was just established.
For a philosopher like William Whewell, the logic of finding an inner planet through calculation was indeed outrageous.
Of course.
Fortunately, besides William Whewell, there were still many understanding people at the scene.
Such as Faraday.
Such as Riemann.
Such as Weierstrass.
Another example is the students majoring in mathematics and natural sciences.
With these people present, Gauss's efforts would not turn into a sentence: 'Is this real? ’ question.
Then Xu Yun looked at Gauss. Seeing that the little old man was in good spirits, he said:
"Professor Gauss, please start positioning."
position.
This concept is not difficult to understand.
It is to lock the position of Pluto at this moment through the previously calculated orbit.
This is also the last part of today's observation mission.
As everyone knows.
Planets and stars are in motion all the time. Planets revolve around stars, and stars revolve around the center of a galaxy or star cluster.
However, due to the different orbits and distances.
Most stars are essentially stationary to humans, while planets often appear in different positions at different times.
For ordinary people, the four stars that are easier to find among the four seasons are metal, wood, fire and earth.
Because they are basically in the same orbital plane as the Earth, the difference in orbital inclination angle between them is even less than 5 degrees based on the Earth's orbital plane.
This orbital plane is the ecliptic.
That is to say.
To find metal, wood, fire and earth, just look in the sky area near the ecliptic.
As for the locking of the ecliptic, there are many ways.
For example, you can use your mobile phone to download an electronic star map, and you won’t need to worry about your studies anymore.
You can also use your own eyes to find the constellations near the ecliptic to infer the ecliptic plane.
Among them, the most recognizable ones in spring are Leo and Virgo.
The constellations in front of Leo are connected in a sickle shape. The brightest one at the bottom is Regulus, and the area next to it is the ecliptic.
Summer is Scorpio and Sagittarius.
The ecliptic passes between Scorpio's pincers (Falcon) and its heart (Antares).
Autumn is the constellation Pegasus, and the two stars on the east side extend about twice as far south as the ecliptic position
In winter it is the constellation Taurus, with the ecliptic between Aldebaran and the Pleiades. (I suggest you give it a try. It’s quite interesting. I taught a buddy this method, and later he used this method to pick up a girl at a barbecue stall. It’s a real thing)
Planets other than metal, wood, fire and earth are more difficult to locate.
For example, Mercury can only be barely observed after sunset or before sunrise, and Uranus and Neptune require the assistance of MATLAB scripts.
As for Pluto
This thing is really outrageous.
Its orbital inclination is 17.1405 degrees, and its axis of inclination is close to 120. It can almost be said to be spinning while lying down
Even in 2022, not many people can calculate Pluto’s orbit with bare hands.
Under normal circumstances, a polytechnic university probably only has two or three.
However, people's abilities are different. For Gauss, this step is all that is needed
I saw him picking up the pen and quickly calculating on the paper according to the calculated orbit formula.
Five minutes later.
A set of data appears:
Right ascension 06h42m10.38726s, declination 08°23′22.4764″.
Corner diameter 0.065″-0.115″.
Flat rate <1%. (This is the coordinate of Pluto on November 17, 1950. It cannot be calculated in 1850. I don’t know why the VSOP87 module crashes as soon as it is turned on. Is the i3 already like this now?)
Xu Yun then took the piece of paper to the edge of the astronomical telescope and handed the piece of paper to Hubert Airy's father, George Bedell Airy, the current director of the Greenwich Observatory.
This was the condition that Xu Yun had negotiated with Hubert Airy in the cafe that day, and it was also one of the reasons for persuading George Bedell Airy to help.
That is to use the discovery of Pluto to eliminate the pressure of public opinion exerted on George Bedell Airy.
Therefore, the final star search process naturally fell to George Beadle Airy.
Besides, let’s be honest.
The astronomical telescope in 1850 had many small parts. You could ask Xu Yun to operate it roughly, but he really didn’t have the ability to do micro-operation
George Bedell Airy took the note, looked at Gauss, and then looked deeply at Xu Yun.
The time has come to decide for yourself whether this choice is right or wrong.
Or to be precise.
It's time to decide whether everyone is tired tonight, or whether the night has been spent in vain.
Under heavy pressure.
Even though George Bedell Airy had rich experience, he still felt a little uneasy at this time.
Then he took a deep breath and came to the telescope.
The star position was corrected according to the coordinates.
Pluto in 2022 is retrograde in Capricorn, while Pluto in 1850 was still wandering near Orion.
Of course.
The words "retrograde" and "wandering" here both refer to the picture from the perspective of the earth. On the scale of the universe, their actual distance is more than thousands of light years.
Following the coordinates given by Gauss, George Bedell Airy quickly found one of the targets:
Orion B molecular cloud complex.
This complex had a very domineering name in later generations, called "Cosmic Lightsaber":
One of the adolescent stars released two jets into space, like a laser sword, showing powerful and terrifying power.
Other than that.
There is also a nebula called NGC 2068 within this complex.
Of course.
Compared with the number NGC2068, its other name is a little more well-known:
M78 Nebula.
That's right, it's the M78 where the Kingdom of Light is located.
M78 appears as a patch with a small telescope and has two stars of visual magnitude 10 and 11, so it is easy to find.
It's a pity that Ultraman Gauss is not a native of the Kingdom of Light,
Otherwise, Gauss should feel a special sense of joy when he sees Gauss’s hometown.
After locking this star area.
George Bedell Airy fine-tuned the worm, then aligned the polar axis and tightened the screws.
In less than half a minute, the starry sky was completely locked.
Some astronomical telescopes in later generations will be equipped with digital display screens, but the technical level these days is not up to standard, so when faced with two decimal places in right ascension and declination, there is only one method:
Use rulers to segment the finderscope.
I saw George Bedell Airy, a tall man, taking out a caliper from his body and turning it with a crunching torque.
Then he bent down and took measurements on the finderscope like a brown bear gnawing on a honeycomb.
The Greenwich Planetarium in 2022 once exhibited a longitude and latitude scale from the early 20th century. The accuracy can reach about five to six decimal places, and the accuracy is relatively good.
"10.3853610.38542"
Ten minutes later.
George Bedell Airy, who had been muttering data, suddenly let out a loud sigh, dropped the longitude and latitude scale, and rushed to the eyepiece to observe.
A few seconds passed.
He raised his head ecstatically and said loudly to Xu Yun, Gauss and others:
"I found it, I found Star Conan!"
Hear this.
The scene with hundreds of people watching was silent at first, and then a burst of noisy discussion broke out.
Upon seeing this, Gauss looked at Xu Yun and quickly came to George Beadle Airy's side:
"Director Airy, have you found Planet Conan? Are you sure?"
"One hundred percent sure!"
George Beadle Airy beat his chest and gave up his position at the same time, giving up the observation point to Gauss.
Gauss nodded to him in thanks, walked to the observation position, and began to look into the eyepiece.
George Biddle Airy stood respectfully beside him, providing guidance for Gauss's observations:
"Conan's star is located in the upper right corner of the viewing angle. There are no other celestial objects around it. There are two stars with vertical angles close to a straight line in the three fields of view on the left."
Following the prompts of George Bedell Aire, Gauss soon found the planet:
This is a planet that is not particularly bright. It occupies a corner of the starry sky alone, with no stars around it.
As if
grim Reaper.
Then Gauss slowly raised his head from the eyepiece and gave up his position to Faraday.
Another half minute passed.
Faraday was replaced by Xu Yun.
After Xu Yun left the observation point.
He turned around and looked at Faraday and Gauss, and the three of them nodded at the same time.
I saw Gauss puffing up his chest, looking around with sharp eyes, and said loudly:
"Professors and classmates, all look at me. I have something to announce!"
"That's it"
"Not long ago, we successfully discovered the ninth planet in the solar system!"
"Tonight is a miracle night worthy of being recorded in the history of science!"
The words fell.
Wow——
There was a burst of cheers at the scene.
Faraday and Gauss are currently the first people in the fields of physics and mathematics in the world, and because mathematics is the core of the classical education system, Gauss's influence is even greater than that of Faraday.
With these two big guys as guarantees, there is obviously no need to question the authenticity.
As for Faraday and Gauss, for the sake of their own face, they forcibly identified a certain celestial body as Conan's star?
joke.
This is a discovery that is enough to shock the European scientific community. There will definitely be a large number of astronomers observing the trajectory.
If it is a lie, within three to five days, an astronomer in London may expose it tomorrow night.
In fact, it is the same in every era. A lot of people yearn for the top spot in their respective industries.
Therefore, if this kind of thing is achieved, it will be successful, and if it is not achieved, it will be unsuccessful.
There is no such thing as covering up failure for the sake of so-called face.
Seeing the somewhat heated scene, Xu Yun glanced at Lao Tang covertly.
Lao Tang nodded towards him and waved to the side knowingly.
soon.
GuluGulu——
A student federation cadre came to the scene with several telescopes.
It was mentioned in the Northern Song Dynasty copy.
Pluto's apparent magnitude is between +13.6 and +14.03, making it a dark star.
There is an empirical formula for the aperture of the telescope, which can easily calculate the limit magnitude ml of the telescope.
This formula is ml=2.1+5lgD, D is the diameter of the telescope in millimeters, and lg is the logarithm.
It is not difficult to calculate according to the formula.
As long as it is an astronomical telescope with an aperture of 288 mm or more, you can see Pluto under good weather conditions - provided that the light pollution is not too serious and it is not at aphelion.
Although the University of Cambridge does not have many astronomical telescopes of this size in stock, there are still five or six in actual number.
According to Xu Yun and Lao Tang's plan.
After Pluto is discovered, these telescopes can be moved to the site to allow as many students as possible to observe Pluto with their own eyes.
This way.
The students' sense of participation will be much higher than that of the photoelectric effect, which is very beneficial to the observation itself, the Gakushu Society and even natural science.
Sure enough.
When these telescopes arrived at the scene, the atmosphere immediately reached a climax tonight.
A large number of students gathered at the telescope eyepiece, hoping to see the ninth planet in the solar system with their own eyes.
"Let me be healthy!"
"You stepped on my foot!"
"I saw it, I saw it! Didn't you say that Conan's star is very dark? Why does it feel so bright to me?"
"You see a barren, then it is Rigel, the star discovered 19 years ago! Can the star not shine?"
"Classmate, do you want to join our Gewu Club? It doesn't cost any money, just add whatever you want."
Just as the scene was bustling with excitement, George Beadle Airy also came to Xu Yun's side.
I saw the director of the Greenwich Observatory looking full of emotion at this time, and said to Xu Yunde seriously:
"Classmate Luo Feng, thank you very much this time."
George Bedell Airy's words were really not polite. Looking at tonight, there were only two people he was most grateful to.
One is Gaussian.
Now he is both reverent and grateful to Gauss - reverence because he is also an astronomer and knows how difficult it is to lock a planet through mathematical calculations, or that it is not something humans do at all
I am grateful because with the discovery of Conan Star, the pressure on me will be reduced drastically!
He will change from a dull person who missed the discovery of Neptune to a positive figure who supports emerging science and has the courage to explore the universe!
Even in the past little while, he was thinking about finding connections to get relevant reports out as soon as possible.
And another person for whom George Bedell Airy was grateful was Xu Yun.
From a process perspective, tonight's observation can be divided into several links.
Such as manpower mobilization, equipment debugging, data calculation, file classification and final observation, etc.
If evaluated from a single stage, Xu Yun may not be the person who made the greatest contribution at each stage.
For example, the manpower mobilization is attributed to Faraday, the equipment debugging is attributed to the Greenwich Observatory, and the quantity calculation is attributed to the mathematical team
But if all stages are integrated, then Xu Yun is undoubtedly the well-deserved first contributor.
To some extent.
This young oriental man is the real driving force in creating this miracle
Opposite him.
Looking at George Beadle Airy who looked much more relaxed, Xu Yun smiled and waved his hand:
"Mr. Airy, you praise me too much. I just rely on my ancestors."
The words were not finished.
Xu Yun suddenly felt an itch on his neck.
He subconsciously turned his head and found Aveline looking at him with a smile not far away.
"."
Xu Yun was frightened by Aveline's gaze. He quickly shrank his neck, gave in decisively, and changed his words:
"Mr. Airy, I'm not being modest. I just did a small amount of work. It's just words on paper, but I can't count it. I can't count it."
George Bedell Ally looked at him deeply, without going into too much detail, but changed the subject and said:
"By the way, classmate Luo Feng, have you thought about Conan's alias?"
Xu Yun was slightly startled:
"Alias?"
"Yeah, another name."
George Beadle Airy points, explains:
"For the discovered stars, in addition to the standard name, we will also assign it an alias."
"For example, Mars is Mars, the god of war in Roman mythology, Mercury is Mercury, Europa is Europa, etc."
"Mr. Fat Fish was the first to formulate the derivation process of Conan's star, and Mr. Gauss and Professor Faraday also expressed their intention to give up the right to name it."
"So the task of naming falls on you - after all, you are the only descendant of Mr. Fat Fish."
Xu Yun nodded clearly.
Giving celestial bodies aliases is a common custom both at home and abroad.
For example, Mars is called Mars in Europe and Yinghuo in the East.
Another example is that Venus is called Aphrodite in Europe, Taibai or Morning Star in the East, etc.
There are countless similar examples.
And because of that humiliating history in modern times, Europeans have always taken the initiative in naming rights.
In later generations, many stars were named after European mythological figures.
But right now, it doesn’t matter whether it’s Faraday or Gauss.
Even George Bedell Airy, the future president of the Royal Society, has a pretty good reputation in history.
In addition, in this timeline, the status of the 'fat fish' has surpassed the differences in race.
Therefore, George Bedell Airy generously gave up the naming rights to Xu Yun.
As for Xu Yun.
Naturally, I am happy to accept this kind of kindness.
He had seen a lot of weird things in his two lifetimes, but he had never had the experience of naming a celestial body.
But what alias should I give Pluto?
How about calling it Su Song to commemorate Lao Su, the pioneer of Eastern astronomy?
Not good, not good.
Lao Su is not dead yet.
Pluto's original semantics are a bit unlucky, and the planet's environment is extremely cold, not to mention that it will be downgraded in the future, so it is inappropriate to use Lao Su's name.
Otherwise.
Choose a name that can form a CP with Conan?
Like Hattori Heiji, Kidd or Genta?
It doesn’t seem appropriate either.
Then who should I call?
Between thoughts.
Xu Yun suddenly caught a glimpse of Frederic Agar Ellis and his father Vittorino Ellis who were quickly retreating out of the crowd with a livid face.
See this situation.
Xu Yun's eyes suddenly lit up.
I saw him turning his head, smiling and saying to George Beadle Airy:
"Mr. Airy, maybe Conan's nickname is 'Ellis'."
"After all, this star was discovered under the 'care' of Earl Ellis."
"I think future generations should be reminded of the contribution of Count Ellis when they mention Conan. What do you think?"
George Bedell Aire blinked and raised his eyelids to glance at Vitorino Ellis.
His son Hubert Airy was also a student in the Department of Mathematics, so after the meeting, it was natural that Vittorino Ellis's remarks were repeated to him.
Tell the truth.
George Bedell Aire was somewhat dissatisfied with this statement. .
Because he was also one of the "whimsical people" called by Vittorino Ellis, he was inexplicably bombarded by the map.
At the same time, as supporters of natural science, nobles such as George Biddle Airy and Vitorino Ellis also had certain differences in their positions.
Therefore, facing Xu Yun's proposal, he agreed without much hesitation:
"Okay, I also think the name Ellis is good. Its original Greek name is Valis, which means cold lowlands. It is obviously the most suitable name to describe Conan."
Although the exact distance of Pluto is not yet known.
According to the Titius-Bode rule, Pluto is about thirty astronomical units from the sun, so the temperature of that planet must be extremely low.
Using Valis to describe it is quite vivid.
Then George Bedell Airy chatted casually with Xu Yun for a few more words, then turned and left the scene.
Seeing the retreating figure of George Bedell Ally, Xu Yun couldn't help but touch his chin.
Poisson's spot was discovered by Mavericks in advance because of the letter he wrote to Mavericks, and his name was changed to Newton's spot.
That is to say.
Due to my own reasons, this timeline lacks a slap-in-the-face allusion.
So now that I have given the world a new allusion, then I can be considered a clean slate.
Reasonable.JPG.
Then Xu Yun suddenly thought of something again, lowered his head and touched the ax on his waist.
Feeling its hard edge, Xu Yun breathed out lightly:
"Very good, it seems that I don't have to talk anymore this time."
As a result, the words remained unfinished.
From a small shed not far away, a somewhat familiar voice suddenly came:
"Ah, it's so strange" (End of Chapter)