Cataclysmic Era: I can unlock the tech tree

As researchers arrived at Laboratory One after another, more and more parts and functions were added to the detector.

Fortunately, all detectors are modularly designed, so adding or removing features doesn't take too much time.

three days later.

The moment the Black Hole Observation Network was successfully established, the first batch of black hole detectors departed from the manufacturing platform built by several engineering ships, driven by antimatter engines, and flew straight toward the incredibly bright accretion disk.

……

The moment the Black Hole Observation Network was activated, a massive amount of data flooded into the central computer located on the Earth.

Even though the quantum supercomputing center has been upgraded several times, it still experienced brief lags when faced with such a massive amount of observational data.

Fortunately, humans possess zero.

It has saved human civilization countless amounts of data processing time!

In the laboratory, Lü Yongchang was carefully examining the processed detection data in the holographic projection, trying to find what he wanted from this complex data.

"Professor, the 9PL67 detector has detected an anomaly."

The synthesized electronic voice interrupted his thoughts.

Lu Yongchang continued to stare at the holographic image in front of him, nodding casually.

As he moved, a holographic projection appeared beside him.

The next moment, he reluctantly turned his gaze away from the data and looked at the screen beside him.

"what?"

His eyes lit up slightly, and he let out a soft exclamation.

The laboratory was quiet, and Lü Yongchang's mutterings could be clearly heard by those around him.

"What? A planet?!"

"Holy crap?!"

"..."

In an instant, the quiet laboratory became lively.

Like children seeing a lollipop, the scientists put down their work and quickly came to Lü Yongchang's side, craning their necks and looking at the holographic image beside him with great curiosity.

A star with several rings slowly orbits the black hole outside its accretion disk.

Under the light of the black hole's accretion disk, these rings appear as a faint purplish-pink.

This fantastical scene failed to attract the attention of the scientists.

All eyes were fixed on the planet whose surface was covered with faint white clouds.

The continent shimmered with yellowish-green, and the waters were a deep blue...

The laboratory fell into a brief silence.

But then, the discussion became even more heated!

Holy crap!

"This is actually a habitable planet!"

"I...it even has liquid water and vegetation on it!"

"Log in! Log in now! I want to see what the creatures living around black holes are like!"

"..."

Perhaps due to their surprise, a series of traditional Chinese opera tunes suddenly rang out in the laboratory.

It's no wonder these scientists couldn't stay calm.

Even Lü Yongchang opened his mouth slightly, somewhat unable to believe what he was seeing.

"Zero, send out a few probes to attempt a landing on this planet!"

Suppressing his excitement, Lü Yongchang gave the order to Zero.

"receive."

Looking at the planet in the holographic projection, Lü Yongchang suddenly had a thought.

"It seems there's no need to look for any more evidence."

"This black hole is indeed devouring a star, and this planet should be one of the stars in the star system."

He muttered to himself, "This planet is really lucky; it didn't fall into the accretion disk of the black hole."

"The Lost Star." Lü Yongchang smiled and pointed at the holographic projection. "Let's call it the Lost Star."

……

It will take quite some time for the probe to reach the lost planet.

Lu Yongchang and the others naturally wouldn't waste time waiting. After their initial amazement, they turned their attention back to the data transmitted back by the Black Hole Observation Network.

"Professor, the first batch of black hole detectors is about to enter the accretion disk."

The synthesized voice sounded again, drawing everyone's attention back.

In the giant holographic projection, real-time images from the black hole detector quickly appeared.

Unlike images transmitted by ordinary detectors, the images transmitted by these black hole detectors appear somewhat choppy.

"Mo Zeyang, report on the operational status of the long-range communication device."

Lu Yongchang immediately asked Mo Zeyang, who was not far away.

This is considered an additional experiment in the process of exploring black holes.

This further validates the so-called "event form" theory.

Although quantum entanglement is not affected by the gravitational fields of stars and planets, the super-strong gravitational field of black holes is the real test of quantum communication.

After all, the warp drive also creates an extremely powerful gravitational field.

Once it is confirmed that quantum communication is affected by strong gravitational fields, the development of new communication technologies will need to be put on the agenda.

"Professor, the long-range communication device is functioning normally."

"All photons are entangled normally!" Mo Zeyang's voice came from afar.

Lü Yongchang nodded thoughtfully: "At present, the [event form] theory has not yet been proven."

"Perhaps the gravitational field isn't strong enough," He Bilin added in a low voice. "According to my calculations, entangled quantum pairs will be lost within the event horizon of a black hole."

"Event horizon..." Lu Yongchang frowned slightly, "In that case, it will be impossible to study the interior of the black hole."

At this point, Lü Yongchang changed the subject: "However, compared with the [event form] theory, I think we should pay more attention to the time deceleration effect."

To determine the changes in the flow of time around the black hole, one of the black hole detectors is equipped with a precise cesium atomic clock that sends a confirmation message to the fleet every second.

Under normal circumstances, the interval for fleets using long-range communication devices to receive information should also be 1 second.

But now, the interval for receiving this confirmation message has reached 2 seconds.

It may not seem like much, but this is, after all, the outermost region of the black hole.

If the detector continues to approach, the time deceleration phenomenon will become more and more obvious!

The idea that "one day on Earth is equivalent to one year in Heaven" may soon become a reality.

At that time, the data transmitted by the black hole detector in just one second will take the fleet six minutes to receive!

Furthermore, as the detector gets closer to the event horizon of the black hole, the flow of time will slow down to an even more exaggerated degree!

This will undoubtedly make data analysis extremely difficult!

Lü Yongchang didn't pay much attention to the rapidly moving accretion disk material in the choppy images; his focus was mainly on the various dry data transmitted back by the detector.

After observing for a long time, he frowned and shook his head.

"no."

"The gravitational field strength is insufficient."

"Zero, control the detector and continue approaching the black hole."