Reborn Before the Apocalypse: My Backing is the Nation

Chapter 192 We Don't Know

After Jiang Yang gave a definite answer to this question, the online conference room, which had thousands of participants, fell into a deathly silence once again.

Jiang Yang waited silently for someone to ask him for more details so he could provide an answer and analyze more details with the help of the experts, but no one asked again after a long wait.

He looked with some surprise at his fellow hibernators in the meeting room of the hibernation base, and saw that most of them had their heads down and were not saying a word.

Looking at the top contemporary scientific researchers in the video conference room, they were either looking down so their expressions couldn't be seen, or they were expressionless and silent.

Jiang Yang vaguely realized something.

He already had a bad feeling, but before it was fully confirmed, Sun Changhe's voice reached his ears.

"In any case, let's calculate the mass, velocity, and orbital data of this black hole first."

After those words, a slight movement finally broke out in the deathly silent video conference room.

An astrophysicist asked in a low voice, "Comrade Jiang Yang, please describe what you saw during your lunar orbit, including the brightness of the black hole's accretion disk, the brightness of the sun, the visual distance between you and the moon, the size of the craters you saw, the process and speed at which the moon was torn apart, and the changes in your spacesuit and the physical changes you felt when you were torn apart by the black hole, etc."

I can tell you every detail.

Jiang Yang composed himself and carefully recalled everything he had experienced not long ago, trying not to miss a single detail.

He knew that scientists could estimate many things using this data.

For example, based on their orbital speed and distance around the moon, they can roughly calculate how much gravity the black hole exerts on them; based on the speed at which the moon was torn apart and the distance at which it was torn apart, they can roughly calculate the mass of the black hole, and so on.

The experts kept asking questions, and Jiang Yang answered them one by one.

"I have collected enough data. Please wait a moment while we begin the simulation."

In the video, the astrophysicist and his colleagues are seen discussing in hushed tones in the laboratory, inputting data and adjusting parameters.

At least dozens of teams are simultaneously performing similar tasks in the video conference room at this moment.

There are also communication mechanisms between different teams to identify and correct any gaps in their understanding. This ensures that the data presented in the video conference room is as close to the actual situation as possible.

Jiang Yang waited silently.

Time ticked by. After just over twenty minutes, the experts seemed to have reached a consensus. Ultimately, it was the leading astrophysicist who stepped forward to answer all the attendees.

"Based on our simulations, we believe that the mass of that black hole is between 2.8 and 3.1 Earth masses."

Its speed relative to Earth is approximately 3.3-3.6 kilometers per second. Based on inverse orbit calculations, we believe that at the time of the apocalypse, it will be about 1.2 kilometers away from Earth.

Hearing these figures, Jiang Yang was slightly surprised.

He initially estimated the black hole's mass to be approximately 2 to 10 times the mass of Earth based on simple visual estimation.

They initially thought their estimated mass was too small, but to their surprise, after more detailed estimations by experts, the mass of this black hole was found to be almost as small as the lower limit of their estimated mass range.

"A black hole with approximately three times the mass of Earth... how did it form?"

Jiang Yang murmured the question aloud.

Jiang Yang knew that within the current scientific framework of the human world, black holes in the universe are basically divided into two types.

The first type is a stellar black hole.

Its formation mechanism is that massive stars reach the end of their evolution and are formed through supernova explosions, with masses generally ranging from several to hundreds of times the mass of the Sun. The second type is supermassive black holes, whose masses generally range from millions to tens of billions of solar masses.

Such black holes typically exist at the core of galaxies. For example, Sagittarius A*, the core of the Milky Way, is a black hole with a mass millions of times that of the Sun.

Based on current research, such black holes are generally believed to be formed by the merger of existing black holes. After all, there is a limit to the speed at which black holes accrete matter; it cannot be too fast.

Even if they had been given enough matter from the beginning of the universe to absorb until now, they would not have been able to grow from a few times the mass of the sun to billions of times the mass of the sun.

Some studies also suggest that supermassive black holes may have formed in the very early stages of the Big Bang.

At that time, the density of matter was extremely high. Without going through any mechanism similar to a supernova explosion, the sufficiently dense matter collapsed directly, forming a supermassive black hole.

Other types of black holes have not only never been discovered in the universe, but their formation mechanisms are also completely unknown to humankind.

This could even lead people to conclude that black holes do not exist in the universe.

This conclusion is not without merit.

A supernova explosion of a massive star can form a stellar-mass black hole. So, what physical mechanism could form a black hole with a mass only three times that of Earth, and only one hundred-thousandth the mass of the Sun?
In response to Jiang Yang's question, the astrophysicist with thick glasses said in a low voice, "We don't know."

Even he says he doesn't know... then no one in the entire human civilization would know.

But that's not really important.

The important thing is that it actually appeared in our solar system, and so close to Earth.

Ah, only 1.2 kilometers away, no wonder…

He shook his head gently and said nothing more.

Jiang Yang had a vague feeling that he might have misunderstood something before.

In his previous life, when he confirmed that the black hole was the real culprit, he felt powerless, but he was not completely desperate.

He was more of a scout.

Scouts are only responsible for scouting the outside world and bringing back intelligence; they are only responsible for discovering problems, not for solving them.

He was well aware of his own level of knowledge, knowing that although he possessed sufficient breadth, his depth was far inferior to that of truly top scientists.

At the same time, having enough knowledge does not mean having enough research capabilities.

It's the sum of a series of comprehensive qualities, not something that can be achieved simply by accumulating knowledge.

While sufficient knowledge is essential for solving unconventional problems, adequate research capabilities are even more important.

Solving this problem requires the work of scientists.

Jiang Yang had experienced this pattern far too many times. From the discovery and resolution of the first apocalypse to the arrival of the second, he had gone through multiple cycles and finally discovered that the real culprit was a black hole.

Throughout this process, this model has never changed and has never disappointed Jiang Yang.

So……

This time, it will surely be the same, won't it?
(End of this chapter)