236: Chapter 236: A Planet is Missing Between Mars and Jupiter!

For the netizens who were checking data while listening to the lecture, as soon as Jiang Zhe's hint dropped, they immediately understood what he was referring to. It was none other than: the Asteroid Belt!

"The Asteroid Belt? Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap!"

"My god, that huge pile of rocks... are they actually the remains of a planet?"

"This association is just too creepy, isn't it?"

"Brother, don't scare me!"

At the National Astronomical Observatory, the atmosphere suddenly grew tense.

Director Wang Weiguo furrowed his brows and subconsciously retorted, "Collapsed? To infer that a complete planet once existed just based on that Asteroid Belt? That's far too arbitrary, isn't it?"

He was resisting the conclusion drawn from such an association!

Professor Zhang Qinian wore a solemn expression. "The mainstream view on the origin of the Asteroid Belt currently leans towards it being the remains of primitive stars that failed to successfully accrete into a planet, or were unable to coalesce due to gravitational disturbances from Jupiter."

"The astronomical community has yet to find any conclusive evidence supporting the complete fragmentation of a planet-sized celestial body."

"He asserts that it was a planetary collapse, but where is the evidence?"

The researchers in the conference room nodded in succession, their faces filled with disbelief.

The leap in logic required for this association was simply too great; it was impossible to find it convincing!

In Principal Fu's office.

Principal Fu felt goosebumps rise all over his steel-like, corpulent body. "Xiao Ren, is there such a theory in astronomy?"

Ren Xiaoyao shook his head in disbelief. "No, not at the moment. This is purely a bold conjecture—you could even call it science fiction."

"Because there is currently no observational evidence to directly prove it—at least, when I teach, I wouldn't even dare to suggest such a thing."

He was now doubting whether it had been the right or wrong decision to accept Old Wang's invitation.

If he was wrong, it could even be serious enough to affect his future lectures!

Meanwhile, inside Qingfeng Temple.

Zheng Ming seemed to have discovered something and looked smug. "I told you he was absurd. Collapsing a planet? What kind of 'infinite multiverse interstellar' joke is this!"

"If there had been such a massive event in the Solar System, how could it not have left even the slightest shred of evidence? Are astronomical telescopes just for show?"

Fang Xu narrowed his eyes and pondered for a moment before speaking, "The conjecture of a simple collapse really lacks evidence; it's truly a castle in the air!"

"Under the current framework of astronomy, to completely destroy a terrestrial planet, the energy required and the subsequent dynamic effects would leave far more obvious, traceable traces within the universe."

"And at present, we haven't found any at all!"

On the other side, at Huaqing University, in the dormitory of Professor Ouyang.

On the large bed, the sleeping Professor Ouyang muttered unconsciously when he heard the word 'collapse'.

"It's better if it exploded. If it didn't explode, the Solar System would be too boring!"

After speaking, the old man turned over and continued to sleep soundly.

On the big screen, inside the living room.

Xiao Yu slowly recovered from the shock. "Brother, collapsed? Is that true or not?"

"Was there really another planet next to Mars?"

"Could that Asteroid Belt be the remains of its collapse?"

Jiang Zhe smiled slightly. He didn't say yes directly, but instead deliberately guided her. "As for what the Asteroid Belt actually is, there has always been controversy in the astronomical community."

"To understand this controversy, and why I have the idea that a planet is missing, we have to start with a rule hidden within the planetary orbits of the Solar System!"

He picked up the tablet, pulled up the Solar System planetary orbit map, and labeled them from the inside out—

The Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Asteroid Belt, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Kuiper Belt.

Pointing the screen at Xiao Yu, he continued, "Counting from left to right, including the two major Asteroid Belts, there are a total of 10!"

"If you don't include the Asteroid Belts, these are the 8 major planets you've learned about."

Xiao Yu and the netizens nodded gently. It was very reasonable!

"And this story begins with the discovery of the Asteroid Belt."

Speaking of this, he paused. He had almost slipped up; this world did not have the French astronomer Titius.

In his previous life, it was Titius who developed a formula that could express the expected position of a planet.

Since this world lacked that scientist, he was forced to propose it himself.

"Xiao Yu, the picture you are looking at now is the arrangement of our Solar System's planetary orbits. It may look random, but it actually hides a simple mathematical rule."

"A rule?"

"Yes, a mathematical formula." He nodded gently and wrote a formula on the blank space of the tablet.

[ A = 0.4 + 0.3 × 2^n ]

"You can simply understand this formula as—[Expected Position]."

"Every planet in the Solar System has its own expected position within this formula."

He didn't give a long-winded explanation of the formula. "We won't worry about the specific meaning of each number in the formula for now. You just need to look at this n."

He pointed to the formula with his finger. "We'll substitute different values for n and see what happens."

He began to calculate, and the results were arranged in order. (Ps: The formula is correct; no need to struggle with understanding it, as it doesn't affect the outcome.)

"When n approaches negative infinity, which is theoretically a very small number, the calculated orbital position corresponds to—"

He pointed to the innermost side. "Mercury."

"When n = 0, it corresponds to the orbit of Venus."

"When n = 1, it corresponds to the orbit of Earth."

"When n = 2, it corresponds to the orbit of Mars."

"Then, according to this rule!" Jiang Zhe's finger pointed heavily at the position after the orbit of Mars and before the orbit of Jupiter.

"When n = 3, there should theoretically be a planet's orbit here, but the position is empty."

Xiao Yu was stunned. "n = 3? Then, shouldn't that be Jupiter?"

Jiang Zhe shook his head slowly. "No, you calculated wrong."

"According to this formula, when n = 3, the corresponding orbital position is outside Mars, but not yet at the distance of Jupiter."

"What is in this position now?"

Xiao Yu looked at the area on the map representing the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter and gasped. "It's the Asteroid Belt; there's no planet there, only a pile of rubble!"

In the live stream, countless netizens were confused about this formula.

Until a Master of Astronomy from Modu provided a professional comment.

"A simple explanation: This formula is actually an empirical rule describing the semi-major axis of planetary orbits—A can be seen as the orbital radius measured in Astronomical Units (AU). 0.4 is the baseline, and 0.3 × 2^n is the increment. When n takes values in sequence, the resulting numbers match the actual orbital radii of the planets in AU. However, when n = 3, the corresponding position is about 2.8 AU, which is exactly the main area of the Asteroid Belt, not the 5.2 AU position of Jupiter. This gap is too obvious!"

"What I didn't expect is that Brother could develop a formula to calculate the expected position of planets that differs from the ones in our world!"

Soon, netizens began to ask.

"Does the astronomical community have this formula too?"

"Holy crap? Is Brother already beyond using other people's formulas and developing a new one himself?"

The Master continued to comment, "Yes, Brother's formula is more like the astronomical formulas from 50 years ago, far less precise than our modern formulas. But to do this without an astronomical telescope? Brother is already amazing!"

Unintentionally, the netizens were stunned by Jiang Zhe's originality!

Soon, more and more netizens began to calculate.

"I calculated it, n = 3 really corresponds to that empty spot!"

"Mercury 0.4, Venus 0.7, Earth 1.0, Mars 1.6... they all match!"

"The formula is correct! Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars all match!"

"When n = 3, the result is 2.8, and the 2.8 AU position is the Asteroid Belt!"

"Jupiter needs n = 4 to be at the 5.2 AU astronomical position!"

"My god, a planet is really missing!"

Inside the National Astronomical Observatory.

Director Wang stared fixedly at the formula on the big screen. "Everyone, calculate this new formula. Immediately! Verify everything!"

One minute later, the researcher in charge of the calculations raised his head, his face full of incredulity.

"Director, the formula is correct."

"It's just that the formula is a bit old, like an astronomical formula from decades or even a century ago."

"The position for n = 3 is indeed the central area of the Asteroid Belt!"

"This is like a modern person developing a formula without an astronomical telescope, and then calculating which planets are in the Solar System. If this were 200 years ago, I would say it was miraculous, but now I'd say: 'Awesome, calculating it based on formulas alone.'"

After he finished speaking, the rest of the researchers were truly shocked by Jiang Zhe's formula.

This was just Jiang Zhe's own planetary position calculated using mathematical formulas.

I have to say, it's very impressive!

Director Wang didn't pay attention to these remarks, only staring at the glaring N = 3.

"According to this old formula, let's continue to extrapolate: n = 4 corresponds to Jupiter's 5.2 AU; n = 5 corresponds to Saturn's 6, corresponds to Uranus's 17, corresponds to Neptune's 30.06 AU."

Seeing the director continue the calculations, Professor Zhang Qinian took over. "In any case, from Mercury to Saturn, and even to Uranus, this simple formula captures the main orbital spacing rules."

"And between Mars and Jupiter, it does indeed point out a vacancy—a position where a planetary orbit should have been, but is now occupied by the Asteroid Belt."

Director Wang said with a serious face, "So, it's not just a possibility. According to this concise and easy-to-understand mathematical rule, our Solar System is really missing a planet, right at..."

Speaking of this, he pointed heavily at the position between Mars and Jupiter on the big screen.

"Between them!"

Inside Principal Fu's office.

Ren Xiaoyao had already finished calculating on his tablet. He raised his head blankly. "It's over. The formula is very old, but it's correct. According to this rule, a planet is really missing!!!"

Old Yu the Physicist asked, "What do you mean?"

Ren Xiaoyao quickly explained the meaning of the formula and the verification results.

When Principal Fu, Director Wang, Xiao Wang, and Old Yu all understood the vacancy mentioned in this formula, the three of them looked at each other, and goosebumps rose in unison.

Inside Qingfeng Temple.

Zheng Ming frowned. He knew mathematics; as long as he substituted the numbers and calculated, he would know what was going on.

He didn't give up and took out his tablet to search for the star map of the Solar System.

Soon, his eyes lit up, and he pointed to a smaller star between Mars and Jupiter. "Haha, who said there's nothing? Isn't there [Ceres] here?"

"It's right around there, and it's classified as a dwarf planet."

"Who said the position for n = 3 is empty???"

Fang Xu didn't even look and interrupted on the spot. "Ceres? It is the largest celestial body in the Asteroid Belt, but its diameter is less than 1,000 kilometers."

"It's just a big rock; it doesn't count as a planet."

"Real planets, such as Mars, have a diameter of more than 6,700 kilometers. The difference in volume and mass is a world of difference!"

"Moreover, this formula is essentially a description of the density of the early Solar System's protoplanetary disk and the positions of orbital resonance."

"It reveals the expected position of the planet!"

"As for the so-called Ceres you mentioned—even if you count it, plus the rest of the Asteroid Belt, it adds up to less than 4% of the Moon's mass."

"This mass is far from enough to form a planet as big as Mars."

"Either a large planet never formed there, or... there once existed a planet larger than Mars, but for some reason, most of the mass suddenly disappeared—or it was thrown out of that area."

"If it's the latter..."

Speaking of this, Fang Xu felt his brows tighten, and a thought appeared in his mind: [Could a nuclear war have really happened in the Solar System?]

Because looking at the data provided by this formula...

It's so possible...

Seeing Fang Xu's reaction, the smugness on Zheng Ming's face vanished.

Fang Xu's logic and interpretation of the formula left him unable to refute.

Inside the History Staff Quarters, Professor Chen Runzhi laughed loudly. "As expected of him, even an outsider like me can calculate that one is missing there."

Professor Wang Shouren couldn't help asking, "Could it really be as he said?"

Old Chen grinned. "There is this possibility!!!"

In the living room.

Xiao Yu was completely shocked by this formula and the answer it revealed.

Think about it carefully: this is a mathematical formula for calculating the position of planets in the Solar System. It's really simple and easy to understand!

Math doesn't lie!!!

"My god, Brother!"

"It seems, it seems like there really should be a planet next to Mars!"

"But now there's only the Asteroid Belt. What happened to it? Why did it become like this?"

Jiang Zhe smiled slightly. "As for why it became today's Asteroid Belt, what reason caused the collapse?"

He paused for two and a half seconds, then grinned. "Before the remedial class ends, you will know."

"Stinky brother!!!"

"Now, let's continue."