Reborn Before the Apocalypse: My Backing is the Nation

Chapter 212 Boiling the Sea
Time passed slowly, and in the blink of an eye, four months had passed since we left Earth.

During this period, the Earth 6 space station was in inertial navigation mode. After breaking free from Earth's gravity, it entered the Sun's gravitational influence and began to travel in a relatively elliptical orbit towards its aphelion.

During this process, the farther away from the sun and the longer the time, the slower its speed will be. At this moment, its speed relative to the sun has decreased to less than 20 kilometers per second.

It has about two months of travel left before it finally enters orbit, and at this point, the distance to the sun has increased to about 260 million kilometers.

The sun remained as bright as ever. In fact, it was even larger and brighter than the sun we saw on Earth back then.

Clearly, the sun expanded considerably during this period.

Jiang Yang stood in front of the telescope, carefully watching the image on the no longer azure planet, at the single light in the night sky.

It was still lit, and at this moment, there was only the vast void between him and it, with nothing obstructing the view. But in Jiang Yang's eyes, it appeared and disappeared, sometimes bright and sometimes dim.

It truly had the feel of a candle flickering in the wind and rain.

After looking at it for a moment, Jiang Yang sighed.

"I'm afraid all the oceans on Earth are boiling by now..."

The idea of ​​burning mountains and boiling seas has always been just a scene from myths and legends.

The total amount of water on Earth is as high as 140 quadrillion tons. To boil it all would require 4.64 x 10^26 joules of heat, roughly equivalent to the total energy released by the explosion of 11 quadrillion tons of TNT.

This far exceeds the energy levels that human civilization can control and utilize.

But now, without humans doing anything, this scene has truly appeared on Earth.

If the sun is so bright and hot from here, 2.6 million kilometers away, what would it look like from Earth at this moment, only 1.5 million kilometers away?
Although communication with Earth has been completely severed and the true situation on Earth is unknown, Jiang Yang can still get a general idea from the scenes he sees.

The violent solar wind and solar energy are constantly pouring towards Earth. The gas molecules that make up Earth's atmosphere are constantly gaining higher kinetic energy, constantly breaking free from Earth's gravity and escaping into interstellar space.

The decrease in air pressure means a decrease in the boiling point of water. At the same time, they absorb more heat from the sun.

Thus, all the oceans, all the seas, all the lakes, rivers, ponds, and all the water that exists on the earth's surface, at this moment, all boiled violently like scorching hot springs, turning into water vapor and replenishing the atmosphere.

At this moment, the average surface temperature is probably as high as 70 or 80 degrees Celsius. Moreover, it covers the entire globe, leaving no place untouched.

Almost all living things on the ground will be steamed and cooked, and will not rot.

Because all microorganisms will die in this process.

They will be like ribs that have been pressure-cooked in a pressure cooker all day, until even the bones become brittle and crack, and eventually merge with the earth.

The entire Earth has truly become a giant steamer under the scorching sun.

The excess water vapor temporarily replenished the atmosphere, but this was only a temporary measure.

Under the sun's energy, water vapor is also irradiated and broken down into hydrogen and oxygen atoms. These atoms, following in the footsteps of the atmosphere, gain enough energy from the sun's radiation to escape Earth's gravity and escape into interstellar space.

It was precisely because of the violent fluctuations in the atmosphere that the light appeared to Jiang Yang as if shrouded in clouds and mist, sometimes bright and sometimes dim.

"I wonder how many people are still alive in the underground city right now."

Jiang Yang thought silently, "Although the underground city's facilities are excellent, under these circumstances, they probably won't last long..."

It's always easier to endure the cold than the heat.

Humans have numerous ways to obtain heat and combat the cold. But when the external environment is already extremely hot, where should the waste heat generated by human activities be released?

With a sigh, Jiang Yang adjusted the magnification of the telescope, expanding the Earth into a single image.

Then he witnessed another astonishing scene.

He saw a long "tail" appear on Earth in the direction away from the sun, just like those comets with long tails.

(The AI ​​is too stupid and can't adjust the image to the way I imagined, so I can only make do with this one.)

He shifted the camera's focus to another star, Venus.

Venus's atmosphere is hundreds of times thicker than Earth's. Furthermore, Venus is closer to the sun and receives far more solar radiation.

Sure enough, he saw that Venus also had a tail behind it, which was several times thicker than Earth's tail.

Next, Mars.

Mars' tail was much dimmer, barely visible.

He shifted his gaze and looked at Jupiter.

Jupiter, being farther away and having a stronger magnetic field, wasn't significantly affected by the Sun. However, he clearly saw that Jupiter's atmosphere was also fluctuating violently.

One after another, cyclones large enough to crush the Earth rotated rapidly within Jupiter's clouds. The Great Red Spot, which had long been a symbol of Jupiter, had dissipated by most of its size under the onslaught of these numerous cyclones.

He knew that those vortexes were actually storms on Jupiter.

By Earth's standards, those storms would probably have long exceeded the upper limit of human classification.

A Force 20 wind? A Force 30 wind? Supersonic winds are probably not out of the question. He knew that even if the entire Earth were thrown into that storm, it would be completely torn apart.

Using the sun as a medium, that tiny black hole truly demonstrated its ability to influence and overturn the entire solar system's structure.

Time continues to slip away silently. The distance between Earth VI space station and the sun is still rapidly increasing.

Two months later, the distance had increased to 3.2 million kilometers.

The Earth VI space station has also reached its aphelion in its orbit around the sun.

Here, it is at its greatest distance from the sun, moves at its slowest speed, and has the highest gravitational potential energy.

If left unchecked, it will rapidly fall toward the sun, accelerating until it passes by the sun at a distance of about 5000 million kilometers, beginning the next cycle.

People, of course, could not accept this situation. So, the second acceleration began.

Prior to this, the astronauts, led by Zhuo Fangting, had carried out multiple extravehicular activity missions to thoroughly inspect the thrusters and eliminate any possible malfunctions.

After a brief adjustment, hundreds of faint beams of light shot out simultaneously, and the space station's speed increased again.

It acquired higher orbital energy, thereby adjusting its orbit from a relatively flattened ellipse to an approximately circular one, and began to revolve around the sun in the opposite direction to that of asteroid belt objects.

In this way, scientists can complete the observation of the asteroid belt in about 2.5 years, saving half the time.

It departs from Earth, takes about 6 months to reach orbit, and then observes from there for 2.5 years, for a total of 3 years.

For the next 2.5 years, they would have to spend it without any support from the rear or any other compatriots.

A telescope on the Earth 6 space station was once again pointed at Earth, displaying the image on a large screen.

In the weightless conference room, all 251 occupants were seated. And so, they saw that light once again.

Even in complete darkness, it still quietly emits a soft light.

Human civilization at this point is probably already extinct. Even if it isn't, only a tiny minority of people are likely hiding in underground cities, barely surviving.

This single light transcends the distance of more than half a year and over 100 million kilometers, extending from that familiar civilization and that familiar Earth to the hearts of people at this moment.

The words that Sun Changhe, the chief commander of the Doomsday Project, spoke on behalf of the World Government's decision-making and deliberation groups, and on behalf of all humankind, seemed to echo in his ears when he left Earth.

"Bon Voyage……"

……

The science leader, using both hands and feet, "swam" to the front in the weightless cabin, looked at his many companions in front of him, and gave orders.

"Asteroid belt observation mission, now commence!"

"Yes!"

People swam out of the conference room in all sorts of ways and headed to their posts.

Several telescopes were adjusted together and aimed at the potentially billions or trillions of asteroids that are orbiting the sun in the opposite direction, and began observation and data collection.

They were too small and too dark.

The dark depths of space will use itself as a curtain to completely conceal them.

Observing them under normal circumstances is very difficult.

This is precisely why Jiang Yang initially thought this was not feasible.

But at that time he overlooked a crucial factor. It was only after Professor Lu Zhaoming reminded him that he remembered it.

It is precisely because of this factor that the difficulty of asteroid belt observation operations has been greatly reduced, making it feasible to carry out observations in this lifetime, which led to the current asteroid belt observation plan.

That is the sun.

If a black hole were to fall into the sun, the sun would become brighter.

At this moment, people have truly seen this.

Even though it is 3.2 million kilometers away from the sun, more than twice the distance between the Earth and the sun, the sun still appears brighter to people than it does to people on Earth.

It's like an oversized searchlight, illuminating the entire space around it.

Asteroids are visible to people because they reflect sunlight.

When the sun shines, they will shine even brighter.

At this moment, the brightness of these asteroids is more than 20 times greater than normal.

With the brightness increased 20 times, we were now truly close to them, less than 1000 million kilometers away. Under these circumstances, observing them would undoubtedly be much easier.

It was under these circumstances that the asteroid belt observation mission truly began.

(End of this chapter)