239: Chapter 239: Why Did a Large-Scale Nuclear Explosion Occur on Mars?

With Jiang Zhe's words falling, the livestream room fell into a brief silence.

Then, it exploded!

"99.4%??? Is this coincidence rate for real?"

"No way, did this really match the gun to the shell casing?"

"Damn, that's horrifying to think about; so the Asteroid Belt really is the corpse of a planet, and it splashed blood all over Mars?"

"Every time this guy smacks sci-fi in my face with math and physics, and I can't even refute it, damn it!"

"..."

In Principal Fu's office, the atmosphere was extremely heavy.

Everyone's gaze fell on Ren Xiaoyao. Ren Xiaoyao quickly grabbed his tablet, entered the academic database with a grave expression, and pulled up past Mars exploration data and the Solar System celestial spectrum library.

Two and a half minutes later, he looked up, bewildered. "The spectral characteristics match; NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and the ESA's Mars Express have both conducted spectral scans of similar regions!"

He pointed to several paper abstracts and data charts he had pulled up on his screen, his Adam's apple bobbing repeatedly.

"The specific absorption peaks of silicates, the ratio of iron-magnesium minerals, even the characteristics of some trace metal elements; the core spectral segments displayed by Jiang Zhe can find highly consistent correspondences in publicly available research data."

"The average reflection spectrum of the main bodies in the Asteroid Belt and the composition of the ejecta from several large impact craters in the southern hemisphere of Mars indeed show astonishing similarities."

Upon reaching this point, he gasped. "It's just that... no one has ever cross-referenced the two sets of data like he did. Comparing them like this, a creepy feeling washes over me!"

As he finished speaking, Principal Fu, Director Wang, Xiao Wang, and Old Yu the Physicist all turned pale.

In Qingfeng Temple, Zheng Ming wanted to say something but stopped, as if his throat had been choked.

"Impossible, it's a coincidence, it must be a coincidence!"

But Fang Xu had already picked up his phone with a grave expression, dialed a number saved as Lin Mo in front of everyone, and turned on the speakerphone.

The call connected quickly. A lazy male voice came through: "Hey, Fang, you great talent, rare for you to take the initiative to find me. What happened?"

Fang Xu asked seriously: "Old Lin, do me a favor. Urgent query. Use your authorization to access the internal database and compare two sets of data."

"1: The average composition spectral model of the main Asteroid Belt near Mars, especially C-type and S-type celestial bodies."

"2: The in-situ spectral data of the large impact craters and ejecta blankets in the southern hemisphere of Mars, specifically Hellas Planitia and the Arabia Terra. I need the highest resolution CRISM data."

Lin Mo was stunned for a moment: "Why are you checking this in the middle of the night? These two things have nothing to do with each other."

"Wait!" Lin Mo suddenly bristled, becoming alert. "Did you hear some rumors? This kind of comparison is very unusual!"

Fang Xu said bluntly, "Check it first, quickly."

"Wait for it!"

The sound of keyboard typing and mouse clicking came from the other end of the phone, occasionally accompanied by Lin Mo's voice: "Pulling up the spectral benchmarks for Ceres and Pallas, accessing the MRO CRISM database... matching regions..."

Suddenly, the typing stopped. After a long silence, only Lin Mo's heavy breathing could be heard.

"Old Fang!" Lin Mo asked in disbelief: "What the hell are you checking?"

"I did a quick cross-comparison and principal component analysis; the core spectral characteristics have an extremely high match rate."

"Especially the hydroxyl/hydrated mineral characteristics in the 2.8 - 3.0 micron waveband, and the silicate absorption peaks near 1.0 and 2.0 microns..."

"This..." Lin Mo gasped. "This average composition of the Asteroid Belt looks like it was splashed onto the face of Mars' southern hemisphere in a very short time; this doesn't make sense!"

"Unless..." Fang Xu narrowed his eyes. "Unless what?"

"Unless the thing that bombarded the southern hemisphere of Mars and the thing in the Asteroid Belt are the same source material!"

"This... this doesn't look like natural meteorite fall; it looks like... like a..."

Once he reached this point, Lin Mo, who was at the National Think Tank's Astronomy Department, was shocked by the inference.

Fang Xu heard this and completed his sentence on the spot, "Like the ejecta and residue from a sudden explosion, right?"

"Right!" Then Lin Mo gasped, his tone clearly very excited. "Damn; Fang Xu, tell me, you aren't implying that the Asteroid Belt next to Mars was actually a fucking planet, are you?"

"And then it suddenly exploded for some unknown reason in a very short time, maybe tens of seconds or a few minutes, and finally splattered fragments all over Mars?"

"Verifying it now." Fang Xu naturally didn't deny it.

A sound of alarm came from the other side, even the harsh sound of a chair falling to the ground.

"I, I need to report this immediately. I have to run it again with more detailed models. Keep in touch!!!"

"No need to rush, someone already knew, they just didn't make the connection!"

With that, he hung up the phone.

In Qingfeng Temple, there was silence.

Fang Xu looked at Zheng Ming, Celestial Master Zhang, and Wang Chongyang, slowly nodding: "Lin Mo, an associate researcher at the Planetary Science Department of the observatory under the National Think Tank. He is responsible for some spectral data analysis projects. You all heard his preliminary judgment."

Celestial Master Zhang and Wang Chongyang both gasped, their brows furrowing even more deeply.

Even Celestial Master Zhang and Wang Chongyang, who weren't particularly passionate about science, were stirred by the charm of this science!

Zheng Ming wanted to say something, wanting to propose some natural cause, like Jupiter's gravity tearing apart a twin planet of Mars.

But facing the spectral data that had been preliminarily verified by others, any refutation was hard to voice.

He just looked at the big screen dejectedly.

The feeling of loss only lasted for 2.5 seconds before his eyes lit up, as if he had found a straw to clutch at. "Even if, even if a twin Mars once broke apart, it absolutely couldn't have been done by an alien civilization; it must be a natural cause, some cosmic phenomenon not yet discovered!"

Fang Xu looked at him and nodded, which was rare. "True, on this point, I agree. The cause of the destruction is the next question. But the fact of the destruction, the spectral fingerprint has already given its testimony."

In the National Astronomical Observatory's conference room, the atmosphere was also very oppressive.

A young researcher asked in a low voice: "Director Wang, Professor Zhang, this data?"

Director Wang Weiguo waved his hand, interrupting him, looking at Jiang Zhe on the big screen with a complex expression. "Data; we have known about it for a long time. The similarity report has been lying in internal briefings for more than a year."

"It's just that no one has ever dared to be the first to stand up and directly equate it with possibilities like planetary destruction and directional bombardment."

As he finished speaking, the conference room became even quieter!

On the big screen, Xiao Yu couldn't help but swallow, her eyebrows furrowed like Lu Zhishen. "Could it be that those fragments really are..."

Jiang Zhe nodded slightly with a serious expression, "Yes, just as you thought!"

Xiao Yu was stunned for a moment, not knowing how to respond. "This..."

In an instant, countless thoughts flooded Xiao Yu's mind.

Many thoughts were telling her that this was impossible; but only a few strange thoughts gained the upper hand!

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration appeared in her mind. She opened her eyes wide, then gasped, shocked by her own thoughts.

"Brother, the southern hemisphere of Mars does indeed have dense meteorite craters, and they weren't formed slowly, they were indeed formed after violent impacts in a very short time; although the composition of the Asteroid Belt and the fragments in the craters are consistent, and it is even highly likely that they got there after a twin planet exploded in a short time."

"Even if there really was a twin Mars there, how can you be sure it was blown up, Brother?"

"Why couldn't it be a natural cause—for example, being torn apart by the gravity of nearby Jupiter; or having undergone a violent celestial collision and disintegration?"

"All your subsequent inferences about energy levels and alien civilizations, Brother, are based on this single explanation of [non-natural] [violent explosion]."

"But besides Formula A and the dense meteorite craters as indirect signs, is there any more direct evidence that can exclude other possibilities?"

"That is, traces of the twin Mars being bombarded by an intelligent civilization!!!"

Speaking up to this point, Xiao Yu didn't notice anything amiss.

If she had looked closely, she would have noticed the change in Jiang Zhe's expression from doubt to curiosity, and then to surprise.

As these words fell, the friends in the livestream room were stunned and gasped one after another.

"Danger!!!"

"Brother is in danger!!!"

"Brother, it's dangerous!!!"

"Xiao Yu, you are really something, always giving Brother hard questions!"

"Don't you dare make Brother unable to get off the stage!"

At this moment, in Qingfeng Temple, Fang Xu looked confused, "Is she undermining her own brother?"

However, through this scene, he finally discovered that the two siblings, especially Jiang Zhe, really didn't know they were livestreaming all along.

Faced with this matter without evidence, anyone else would have failed. Thinking of this, Fang Xu was even more curious about how he would end this!!!

Beside him, Zheng Ming laughed loudly, "Hahahaha, Xiao Yu said everything I wanted to say. You have to be serious, only by being serious is there a way out. Reward!!!"

With that, he didn't say another word and rewarded the livestream room with 10,000 yuan!

[Zheng Ming rewarded the streamer with 10 Super Rockets!]

"Good guy, is Zheng Ming watching too?"

"Is he watching to see Brother make a fool of himself?"

"Didn't you bash Brother on Weibo every day, bullying him for not using Weibo, but you're secretly watching behind his back?"

"You're really a little black fan!"

"..."

Wang Chongyang glanced at his apprentice and shook his head, childish temperament!

"Wonderful, a very wonderful question and counter-question!" Jiang Zhe suddenly grinned, then raised his hands to applaud Xiao Yu, "Xiao Yu, very beautiful; you don't know, if it were a natural cause..."

Suddenly, his expression turned cold, and he asked in a very stern tone: "Why would large-scale... appear on Mars?"

"Nuclear explosions???"

As these words fell, the previously smug Xiao Yu was instantly stunned, "Ah, nu, nuclear explosions?"

All the friends frowned again, sat up straight, and leaned closer to their computers, phones, and projection screens.

"???"

Even Zheng Ming, who had just finished rewarding, was a bit stunned and regretful. He felt he had rewarded too early!!!