Reborn Before the Apocalypse: My Backing is the Nation

Chapter 190 The Roche Limit
Jiang Yang knew that the fact that he had previously seen the moon as larger than it could be seen from its normal orbit, and the fact that he now saw it as smaller, were actually two sides of the same coin, and an inevitable situation.

This means that its orbital energy is higher, its apogee will be farther, and its perigee will be closer.

What caused its orbital energy to increase?
It's obvious that it can only be that black hole.

Without his knowledge, the gravity from the black hole, together with the gravity from the moon, acted on him, increasing his orbital energy and leading to this situation.

The only unknown at present is...

To what extent has its orbital energy increased? Is it sufficient to escape the moon's gravity?

If enough, one would be captured by that black hole, and instead of orbiting the moon, one would orbit that black hole.

Just like many other stars that have come close to the Sun in the history of the solar system.

When these stars get close enough, they may capture celestial bodies that were originally orbiting the Sun, causing them to orbit around them instead, and carry them out of the solar system.

Similarly, this process could also cause celestial bodies that were originally orbiting other stars to instead orbit the Sun.

One of the most famous examples is Comet 'Oumuamua.

Before Jiang Yang experienced his first doomsday, this comet had attracted much attention and left a deep impression on him.

But this comet was just a "temporary visitor"; its orbital energy was too high for the sun to retain.

Of course, there are other examples, such as asteroid 2015BZ509, which is highly likely to be a star captured by the Sun from another star.

At this moment, Jiang Yang knew that he had most likely become a "trophy" in the gravitational war between the black hole and the moon.

Jiang Yang was powerless to change this situation. Whether the moon would temporarily win the war or the black hole would take him over, he could only leave it to fate.

But when the bright star created by the black hole's accretion disk reached its maximum brightness, and the moon below shrank to its smallest size, estimated to be several thousand kilometers away, Jiang Yang saw that the moon began to slowly grow larger again.

It seems that... although the ultimate loser in this gravitational war will surely be the moon, and the moon is even destined to be torn apart by the black hole, in this small "battle", the moon has won.

It will still belong to the moon and will orbit the moon once more.

Below, the moon grew larger and larger. Although he couldn't sense it, Jiang Yang knew that his speed was also increasing.

At this point, Jiang Yang began to worry more about another problem.

As orbital energy increases, the apogee will naturally become farther away, and the perigee will also become closer.

So, how much will the perigee distance between myself and the moon shorten during this week of rotation?

If I get too close... what if I crash into the moon, just like the satellites that humans once deliberately crashed into the moon?
That would probably hurt a lot...

Okay, let's put aside whether it hurts or not for now. The key point is that if that happens, I won't be able to continue observing it.

But the problem remains: Jiang Yang is powerless to change the current situation.

Everything is left to fate, letting this invisible and intangible force control one's progress.

The moon expanded rapidly, once again occupying Jiang Yang's entire field of vision.

At this moment, Jiang Yang could even clearly see the undulating terrain of the moon, the huge canyons and towering mountains.

With a simple visual inspection, Jiang Yang came to a startling conclusion.

At this moment, the distance between himself and the moon is less than 2 kilometers! His forward speed has reached at least 2.3 kilometers per second, which is close to the moon's escape velocity.

And the moon is not at peace at this moment.

Jiang Yang could clearly see that, as if an invisible giant hand was desperately stirring the moon, the entire moon was shaking violently. Deep canyons suddenly closed, towering mountains collapsed abruptly, and the once flat land suddenly cracked open.

Perhaps this was the scene when Earth faced a devastating, global earthquake not long ago...

Jiang Yang sighed softly to himself.

Looking at the massive, world-destroying fluctuations, Jiang Yang suddenly saw a familiar scene.

It was a canyon. Faint rays of light shone through the canyon walls.

With great difficulty, Jiang Yang managed to discern a few familiar landmarks from the fragmented, seemingly transformed landscape.

This is the canyon where the Moon City base is located.

And now...

With another violent tremor, the canyon suddenly closed, and the Moon City base completely disappeared.

Goodbye, goodbye, my compatriots...

Jiang Yang turned his gaze back to the front of the road.

The lunar surface began to shrink again, and Jiang Yang could see its entirety once more.

But at this moment, the moon is no longer spherical.

At this moment, it resembles the shape of a parachute: the top remains spherical, but the bottom protrudes outward to an extreme degree, becoming a cone shape.

The apex of the cone points to that bright star.

The tidal forces have increased to the point where they could tear the moon apart.

The moon itself has a thickness. And its gravity decreases with distance.

This leads to a phenomenon where the side of the moon facing the black hole experiences a stronger gravitational pull, while the side facing away experiences a weaker pull.

Thus, the moon began to have a tendency to be torn apart. But initially, because the moon itself possessed a certain structural strength, it was able to maintain its spherical shape.

However, the closer to the black hole, the greater the gravitational difference between the front and back sides. Up to this point, the gravitational difference has exceeded the structural strength of the moon itself.

The balance point between the gravitational difference and the strength of its own structure is the Roche limit.

At this moment, the moon has already crossed the Roche limit of the black hole, and it is inevitable that it will be torn apart.

Jiang Yang watched quietly, clearly seeing the moon being rapidly stretched into a long strip, with one end connected to the moon and the other end extending into the massive accretion disk of the black hole.

The accretion disk, which had been dim due to a lack of matter, suddenly became bright again after being replenished with matter.

Two even brighter jets instantly extended from the two poles of the black hole, stretching all the way into the vast and endless depths of the universe.

(I tried for a long time but couldn't generate a satisfactory image, so I had to find an image from the internet.)

Jiang Yang knew that the directionality of black hole jets was extremely high, even higher than that of the most directional laser beams that humans could create.

It appears only slightly brighter than the accretion disk at this moment, but not much brighter, simply because it is not pointing towards itself.

Endless light and heat surged toward Jiangyang.

(End of this chapter)