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Wang Miao drove along Jingmi Road to Miyun County, then turned to Heilongtan, walked a section of winding mountain road, and arrived at the radio astronomy observation base of the National Astronomical Observation Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
He saw 28 parabolic antennas with a diameter of nine meters lined up in the twilight, like a row of magnificent steel plants. Two tall fifty-meter radio telescope antennas built in 2006 stood in this row of nine. At the end of the meter antenna, as the car approached, they reminded Wang Miao of the background of the group photo of Yang Dong's mother and daughter.
However, the projects of Ye Wenjie’s students have nothing to do with these radio telescopes. Dr. Sha Ruishan’s laboratory mainly receives observation data from three satellites: the microwave background detection satellite COBE, which was launched in November 1989 and will be phased out, was launched in 2003. The Wilkinson microwave anisotropy detection satellite WMAP and the Planck high-precision cosmic microwave background detection satellite Planek launched by the European Space Agency in 2009.
The overall microwave background radiation spectrum of the universe is very precisely in line with the blackbody radiation spectrum at a temperature of 2.726K, which is highly isotropic, but there are also fluctuations of approximately five parts per million in different parts.
Sha Ruishan's job is to redraw a more accurate map of the microwave radiation background of the entire universe based on satellite observation data.
The laboratory is small, the host room is packed with satellite data receiving equipment, and there are three terminals that display data from three satellites.
When Sha Ruishan saw Wang Miao, he immediately showed the enthusiasm of people who have been working in a lonely place for a long time to meet visitors, and asked him what observation data he would like to know.
"I want to observe the overall fluctuation of the cosmic background radiation."
"Can you... be more specific?"
Sha Ruishan looked at Wang Miao's eyes becoming strange.
"That is, the overall isotropic fluctuation of the cosmic 3K microwave background radiation, the amplitude is between one percent and five percent."
Sha Ruishan smiled. As early as the beginning of this century, the Miyun Radio Astronomy Base was open to tourists. To earn some extra money, Sha Ruishan often did some tour guides or lectures. This smile is what he answered to tourists (he has adapted They often reveal their problems with their terrifying scientific blindness.
"Mr. Wang, you... aren't you a professional?"
"I work in nanomaterials."
"Oh, that's right.
However, do you probably know something about the 3K background radiation of the universe? "
"Not much is known.
The current theory of the origin of the universe believes that the universe was born in a big bang about 14 billion years ago.
In the early days of its birth, the universe was extremely hot, and then began to cool down, forming'embers' called microwave background radiation.
This residual background radiation that permeates the entire universe can be observed in the centimeter waveband.
It seems that in 1969, two Americans accidentally discovered the cosmic background radiation when debugging a high-precision satellite receiving antenna..."
"Enough," Sha Ruishan waved to interrupt Wang Miao.
"Then you should know that, unlike the small inhomogeneities in different parts of our observations, the overall radiation background fluctuations of the universe change slowly on the cosmic time scale as the universe expands. With the accuracy of Planck satellites, it reaches one million. Years later, this change may not be able to be measured, but you want to discover its 5% fluctuation tonight?!
Do you know what this means?
This means that the entire universe flickers like a broken fluorescent tube! "
And it was flickering for me, Wang Miao said in his heart.
"Teacher Ye is joking."
Sha Ruishan shook his head and said.
"I hope it's a joke."
Wang Miao said that he wanted to tell him that Ye Wenjie didn't know the details, but he was afraid that this would lead to his rejection, but this was what he said in his heart.
"Since it was Mr. Ye's confession, let's observe it. Anyway, it doesn't take much effort. The accuracy is one percent.
Just use the old antique COBE. "
Sha Ruishan said, getting busy on the terminal, and soon a straight green line appeared on the screen, "Look, this is the real-time numerical curve of the current overall background radiation of the universe. Oh, it should be called a straight line. The value is 2.726±0.010K, that error is the Doppler effect produced by the motion of the Milky Way, which has been filtered out.
If there is a fluctuation of more than one hundredth of the amplitude that you mentioned, the line will turn red and the fluctuation will be displayed.
I bet it will be a green straight line until the end of the world. It may take longer to see the changes visible to the naked eye than to see the destruction of the sun. "
"This will not affect your normal work, will it?"
"Of course not. With such a rough accuracy, it is enough to observe the scraps of the data with COBE.
Well, from now on, if that great fluctuation occurs, the value will be automatically saved. "
"May have to wait until one o'clock in the morning."
"Wow, so precise?
It doesn't matter, I was on night shift anyway.
have you eaten?
Well, let me show you around. "
There was no moon that night, and they walked along the long antenna array.
Sha Ruishan pointed to the antenna and said:
"Spectacular?
Unfortunately, they are all deaf ears. "
"why?"
"Since they were built, there has been continuous interference in the observation frequency band, first the paging station in the late 1980s, and now it is the crazy development of mobile communications.
Most of the projects that these metric wave synthetic aperture radio telescopes can do, such as metric wave surveys, radio variable sources, supernova remnants research, etc., cannot be carried out normally.
I have visited the No Committee (National Radio Management Committee) many times, but it is no use. Can we play China Mobile, China Unicom, and Netcom?
Without money, the mystery of the universe is a ball!
Fortunately, my project relies on satellite data and has nothing to do with these ‘tourist landscape’. "
"In recent years, a lot of commercial operations of basic research have been very successful, such as high energy physics.
It should be better to build the observation base farther away from the city? "
"That's still a matter of money.
For now, it can only be technically shielding interference.
Alas, it would be great if Mr. Ye had to be there. She has a lot of accomplishments in this area. "
So the topic turned to Ye Wenjie.
From her students, Wang Miao learned about her life-threatening life:
He heard Sha Ruishan talk about how she witnessed the tragic death of her father during the "Cultural Revolution", and that she was framed in the Construction Corps, and then there was no news; she only returned to this city in the early 1990s, where her father worked. Astrophysics was taught in the university until retirement.
"I only learned recently that she spent more than 20 years at the Red Bank Base."
"Red Bank?!"
Wang Miao stopped in surprise, "Could it be that those legends..."
"Most of it is true.
A developer of Red Bank's self-interpretation system immigrated to Europe and wrote a book last year. Most of the legends you mentioned came from that book, and as far as I know it is true.
Most of the participants in the Red Bank Project are still alive. "
"This is really... a legend!"
"Especially when it happened in that era, it is a legend in the legend." ...
They talked for a while, when Sha Ruishan asked about the purpose of this strange observation, Wang Miao avoided answering, and he did not ask again.
Obviously, the dignity of an expert does not allow him to show too much interest in such observations that violate professional common sense.
Then they went to an overnight bar for tourists to sit for more than two hours. Sha Ruishan poured beer one after another and became more talkative, while Wang Miao was already disturbed, and that kept coming up in his mind. Green straight lines.
It was only ten minutes before one o'clock in the morning that Sha Ruishan accepted Wang Miao's many proposals and got up and returned to the laboratory.
At this time, the spotlight shining on the radio antenna array has been extinguished, and the antenna has turned into a simple black two-dimensional pattern under the night sky, as if a row of abstract symbols, looking up at the universe at the same elevation angle, seemingly waiting what.
This sight made Wang shudder. He thought of the giant pendulums in "Three-Body".
It was exactly one o’clock in the morning when they returned to the laboratory. When they turned their eyes to the terminal screen, the fluctuations just appeared. The straight line turned into a curved line. There appeared sharp wave crests at different intervals, and the color turned red, like a hibernation. The snake began to squirm with blood.
"It must be a malfunction of the COBE satellite!"
Sha Ruishan stared at the curve in horror.
"Not a malfunction."
Wang Miao said calmly that he had initially learned to control himself in the face of such things.
"We will know right away!"
Sha Ruishan said, quickly operating on the other two terminals.
Soon, he called up the real-time data of the cosmic background radiation of the other two satellites, WMAP and Planck, and displayed their changes as curves——
The three curves fluctuate synchronously, exactly the same.
Sha Ruishan took out another laptop, started the system in a hurry, plugged in the broadband network cable, and then called—Wang Miao heard that he was contacting the Urumqi Radio Observation Base—and waited.
He didn't explain anything to Wang Miao, staring at the browser on the screen, Wang Miao could hear his rapid breathing:
A few minutes later, a coordinate window appeared on the browser, and a red curve appeared on the window, which was in precise synchronization with the other three waves.
In this way, three satellites and a set of ground observation equipment simultaneously confirmed one thing: the universe is flickering!
"Can you print the previous curve?" Wang Miao asked.
Sha Ruishan wiped a cold sweat from his head, nodded, moved the mouse to start the printing process.
Wang Miao couldn't wait to grab the first piece of paper spit out by the laser printer, and traverse the curve with a pencil, comparing the distance between the peaks with the Morse code table he had just taken out.
Short long long, short long long long, short short short short, long long short short, long short short long, short long long long, short short short long, long short short long long, short short Long, long and short, this is 1108:21:37.
Short long long, short long long long, short short short short, long long short short, long short short long, short long long long, short short short long, long short short long long, short short Long, long and short, this is 1108:21:36.
Short long long, short long long long, short short short short, long long short short, long short short long, short long long long, short short short long, long short short long long, short short Long, short and short, this is 1108:21:35. ...
The countdown continues on the cosmic scale, 92 hours have passed, and 1108 hours left?
Sha Ruishan paced back and forth anxiously, stopping behind Wang Miao from time to time to look at the string of numbers he was writing.
"Can't you really tell me the truth?!"
He couldn't bear to ask loudly.
"Dr. Sha, believe me, it's not clear at the moment."
Wang Miao pushed aside the pile of paper printed with fluctuation curves and stared at the countdown number. "Perhaps, three satellites and one ground observation point are malfunctioning."
"You know it's impossible!"
"What if someone vandalized it on purpose?"
"It's impossible!
Change the data of three satellites and a ground observation station at the same time?
Then this destruction is also somewhat supernatural. "
Wang Miao nodded, he would rather accept this supernatural than the cosmic twinkle.
But Sha Ruishan immediately took away the only life-saving straw in his arms.
"To prove all of this in the end, it's actually very simple.
The fluctuation of the cosmic background radiation is so large that we can detect it with the naked eye. "
"What are you talking about?
Now you are violating common sense: the wavelength of background radiation is 7cm, which is seven or eight orders of magnitude larger than visible light. How can you see it? "
"Use 3K glasses."
"3K glasses?"
"It's a popular science gadget we made for the Capital Planetarium.
With the current technology, the twenty-foot horn antenna used by Penzias and Wilson to discover 3K background radiation more than 40 years ago can be made into glasses the size of glasses, and a conversion system is installed in the glasses to receive The wavelength of the received background radiation is compressed by seven orders of magnitude, and the 7cm wave is converted into red light.
In this way, the audience can see the 3K background radiation of the universe with their own eyes when they wear this kind of glasses at night, and now they can also see the cosmic flashes. "
"Where is this thing now?"
"In the planetarium, there are twenty pairs."
"I must get it before five o'clock."
Sha Ruishan picked up the phone and dialed a number. It took a long time for the other party to pick up the call. Sha Ruishan tried to persuade the person who was woken up in the middle of the night to wait for Wang Miao in the planetarium an hour later.
When parting, Sha Ruishan said, "I didn't go with you. What I saw just now is enough. I don't need such proof.
I still hope that you can tell me the truth in due course. If this phenomenon leads to any research results, I will not forget you. "
"The flickering will stop at five o'clock in the morning, don't go into it in the future, trust me, there will be no results."
Wang Miao leaned on the car door and said.
Sha Ruishan stared at Wang Miao for a long time and nodded: "I see, now something has happened in the scientific world..."
"Yes."
As Wang Miao said, getting into the car, he didn't want to continue this topic.
"Is it our turn?"
"At least it's my turn."
Wang Miao said and started the car.
Wang Miao arrived in the city an hour later and got out of the car in front of the new planetarium.
The midnight light of the city faintly reveals the internal structure through the transparent curtain wall of this huge glass building.
Wang Miao now realizes that if the architect of the new planetarium wants to express his feelings about the universe, he has succeeded——
The more transparent things are, the more mysterious. The universe itself is transparent. As long as you can see, you can see as far as you want, but the more you see, the more mysterious.
The sleepy planetarium staff member was already waiting for Wang Miao at the door. He handed a suitcase to Wang Miao, "There are five pairs of 3K glasses, all of which are fully charged. The button on the left is the switch, and the button on the right is Luminosity adjustment.
There are more than a dozen pairs on it. You can look at it whatever you want. I'll go to bed first, in the room near the door.
This Dr. Sha is really crazy. "
After speaking, he turned and walked into the dark hall.
Wang Miao put the box on the car seat and opened it, and took out a pair of 3K glasses, which were very similar to the helmet-mounted display in the V-suit he had just used.
He picked up a pair and walked out of the car and put it on. The night view of the city through the lens did not change, but it was darker. Only then did he remember to turn on the switch. Immediately, the city turned into a hazy halo. Most of the brightness is fixed, and some are flickering or moving.
He knew that these were all centimeter microwaves converted into visible light, and the center of each halo was an emission source. Due to the wavelength, it was impossible to see the shape clearly.
He raised his head and saw a dark red gleam of the sky. In this way, he saw the cosmic background radiation. This red light came from more than 10 billion years ago. It was the continuation of the Big Bang and the aftermath of Genesis.
You can't see the stars. Originally, because the visible light band has been pushed to invisible, the stars should be black spots, but the diffraction of centimeter waves drown out all shapes and details.
When Wang Miao's eyes adjusted to all this, he saw the red light background of the sky flashing slightly, and the entire space flickered synchronously as a whole, as if the entire universe was just a lone lamp in the wind.
Standing under the twinkling firmament, Khan Miao suddenly felt that the universe is so small that it only confines him to it.
The universe is a narrow heart or uterus. This diffuse red light is a translucent blood night filled with it. It is suspended in the blood. The flashing cycle of red light is irregular, like this heart or uterus. Pulse, he felt a weird and abnormal huge existence that could never be understood with human wisdom.
Wang Miao took off the 3K glasses and sat weakly on the ground leaning on the wheel.
In his eyes, the city at midnight regained the realistic picture depicted in the visible light band, but his eyes wandered, capturing something else:
One of the neon lights in the row of neon lights by the gate of the opposite zoo was broken and flickering irregularly;
The leaves on a small tree nearby swayed in the night wind, reflecting the light of the street lamp, flickering irregularly;
In the distance, the five-pointed star on the Russian spire of the Beijing Exhibition Hall is also reflecting the light of the car lights on the different streets below, flashing irregularly...
Wang Miao tried to decipher these flashes by Morse code.
He even felt that the folds of a few colored flags floating in the breeze on the side, and the ripples on the surface of a depression on the roadside, all conveyed Morse code to him...
He worked hard to decipher, feeling the passing of the ghost countdown.
I don't know how long it took, the staff of the planetarium came out and asked Wang Miao if he had finished watching.
When he saw him, his appearance made the sleepiness in that person's eyes disappear suddenly.
After packing the box of 3K glasses, the man stared at Wang Miao for a few seconds, then walked back quickly carrying the box.
Wang Miao took out her cell phone and dialed Shen Yufei's number. She answered it soon. Maybe she also spent a sleepless night.
"What is the end of the countdown?" Wang Miao asked weakly.
"do not know."
After saying these short three words, the phone hung up.
What is it?
Maybe it was his own death, like Yang Dong did;
Perhaps it was a catastrophe like the Indian Ocean tsunami a few years ago, and no one would associate it with their own nano-research projects. (This thinks of whether every catastrophe in the past, including the two world wars, was Is it the end of the ghost countdown?
There is an ultimate responsibility for a person like himself that no one can think of);
Maybe it was the complete destruction of the whole world, in this abnormal universe, it would be a relief to everyone...
One thing is certain, no matter what the end of the ghost countdown is, in the remaining thousand hours, the speculation about the end will torture him cruelly like a demon, and finally destroy him completely mentally.
Wang Miao got into the car, left the planetarium, and drove aimlessly in the city.
Before dawn, the road was very empty, but he dared not drive fast, as if the car was driving fast and the countdown was going fast.
When there was a ray of morning light in the east, he parked the car on the side of the road, got out of the car and started walking, also aimless.
There was a blank in his consciousness, only the countdown appeared on the dark red background radiation, beating, he himself seemed to have become a simple timer, a death knell that didn't know for whom.
When dawn came up, he was tired from walking and sat down on a bench.
When he looked up at the destination he had reached subconsciously, he couldn't help but shudder.
He is sitting in front of Wangfujing Catholic Church.
Under the pale sky at dawn, the Romanesque spire of the church resembled three big black fingers, seeming to point out something in the dark space for him.
Wang Miao got up to leave, but a burst of sacred music from the church retained him.
Today is not a Sunday. This may be the choir's rehearsal for Easter, singing the "Holy Spirit Illumination" that is often sung in this festive mass.
In the majestic and far-reaching of Shengle, Wang once again felt that the universe had become smaller and turned into an empty church. The dome was concealed in the radiant red light of the background. He was a small in the cracks of the floor tiles of this magnificent church. ant.
He felt that his trembling heart was touched by an invisible giant hand, and for a while he returned to his fragile and helpless childhood. Something that he was holding on deep in his consciousness softened like wax and collapsed. .
He covered his face with his hands and cried.
"Hahaha, let another one down!"
Wang Miao's crying was interrupted by a burst of laughter behind him. He turned his head to see that Da Shi was standing there with a puff of white smoke from his mouth.