248: Chapter 248: Mars Can Be a Satellite, Bipolar Tidal Locking

At 2:30 AM, the second round of simulation was about to begin.

This time, Professor Zhang Qinian turned his attention to Mars itself.

"Prepare for the second run. Set the orbital and rotation parameters for Mars; then, place a massive planet at both Mars' north and south poles."

"The one to the north is the tiamat we just blew up—mass 0.78 times that of Earth, with an initial orbit of 2.8 AU."

"For the one to the south, set the mass to 2 to 5 times that of Earth, and simulate the distance appropriately."

"Use early data from the birth of the Solar System for Jupiter's parameters."

Zhang Lin turned to look at him. "Professor Zhang, what are we simulating?"

"Yes." Professor Zhang Qinian nodded slightly. "It's tidal locking; specifically, that Bipolar Tidal Locking he mentioned."

Zhang Lin took a deep breath and began inputting the parameters.

On the screen, a 3D model of Mars slowly emerged.

It was the Mars they were all too familiar with—a red sphere where the massive Tharsis Bulge near the north pole was clearly visible; that was the plateau where Olympus Mons was located.

Near the south pole, the ring of mountains bordering Hellas Planitia was also clearly in view.

For the sake of data rigor, he removed the bulge data from both sides of Mars. Then, two bright spots representing gravitational sources appeared at the north and south poles—the northern one was dimmer, representing tiamat, while the southern one was brighter, representing that unknown massive planet.

Seeing the data entry was complete, Professor Zhang nodded slightly. "Let's begin."

The enter key was pressed, and the simulation started.

The flow of time began to accelerate: five million years, ten million years, twenty million years, twenty-five million years...

Mars' rotational axis began to tilt slightly, but the magnitude was small enough for the computer to capture.

Under the tidal locking of the two gravitational sources, the Martian crust at the north and south poles began to bulge upward slowly, as if pinched by two invisible hands.

"Look!"

A young researcher pointed at the contour map on the screen, and everyone leaned in to observe meticulously.

In the northern polar region of Mars, an area was rising at a visible speed—this was being pulled by tiamat's gravity, and this region would later become the Tharsis Plateau.

Simultaneously, the southern polar region was also rising, especially the location that would later become the mountains on the edge of Hellas Planitia, slowly pulled up by the gravity of the massive planet to the south.

"The data matches!" The young researcher's eyes lit up. "The rate of uplift, direction, and scope in the Tharsis Plateau region are perfectly consistent with the simulation, with an error of less than 3%!"

Zhang Lin stared at the screen, his Adam's apple bobbing. "Damn, it really can be tidal locking?"

On the screen, the two gravitational sources continued to tug at Mars.

Time continued to advance: 500 million years, one billion years, two billion years...

Soon, a time marker popped up on the screen: just over 2.8 billion years.

Right then, the northern gravitational source representing tiamat suddenly exploded and vanished into starlight. Just like in the previous simulation, it hadn't escaped the 2.8-billion-year limit!

Immediately after, Mars shuddered violently, and the entire sphere on the screen shook.

The bulge in the northern polar region began to slowly rebound, but because the Martian crust had already solidified over the long geological ages, most of the terrain remained, only sinking slightly.

This area pulled up by tiamat eventually solidified into today's Tharsis Plateau, with its most prominent feature being the later-formed Olympus Mons.

Meanwhile, the southern gravitational source was still there.

The bulge at the south pole continued to grow—ten million years, fifty million years, a hundred million years—the area rose higher and higher, eventually forming that 9,000-meter-high ring of mountains around Hellas Planitia.

The simulation ended.

A series of conclusions slowly appeared on the screen.

[Simulation Conclusion: Around 2.8 billion years ago, the target planet, Mars, was in a state of Bipolar Tidal Locking. Both sources acted simultaneously, leading to synchronous uplift at the north and south poles. After the northern source, tiamat, disappeared, the northern uplift—including the Tharsis Plateau and Olympus Mons region—partially solidified. The southern source continued to act, causing the southern uplift to grow further, eventually forming the mountains on the edge of Hellas Planitia.]

As the prompt faded, everyone gasped in unison.

Zhang Lin couldn't help but swallow hard, his vision trembling slightly.

"Professor Zhang, the computer is telling us that Mars really could have been a moon!!!"

One must understand that in a simulation experiment, even if evidence is scarce, if the simulation succeeds, it proves a point regardless of the evidence!

In a simulation of this scale, if there were even a slight "starting point error"—such as incorrect initial parameters—Mars would have collapsed, wandered, disintegrated, or been annihilated, pulled into Jupiter or flung out of the Solar System.

But!!!

The conclusion Zhang Lin saw was...

Mars was slowly bulging exactly according to real-world data, which proved a truth: [Our starting data is correct, not abrupt, and entirely reasonable!]

Mars could be a moon; within the framework of specific scientific facts that do not deviate from reality...

Mars could also have been in Bipolar Tidal Locking!!!

The researchers squinted, finding it all inconceivable.

Mars was a bit too special; billions of years ago, it was arguably even more special than Earth!!!

Professor Zhang Qinian stepped forward and personally brought up another starting simulation map, then paused it.

This time, he zoomed out the perspective, further and further.

Two massive points of light appeared on Mars' orbit.

Play!

Instead of being torn apart by the gravity of the two planets, Mars was weirdly locked between them, held firmly by their combined gravitational pull.

Seeing this, everyone's heart skipped a beat, and four words came to mind.

Shared moon.

Mars wasn't the exclusive moon of any single planet; it was once a shared moon between two planets!!!

Seeing this, a young researcher frowned.

"So Mars really used to orbit two planets much larger than itself?"

"One to the north, one to the south. Then the one to the north exploded and became the Asteroid Belt, while the one to the south escaped... but over billions of years, it pulled up the massive mountains at the south pole. Is that how Mars became what it is today?"

"I'm afraid so. It's an extremely rare phenomenon!" Professor Zhang Qinian nodded solemnly.

A researcher couldn't help but ask curiously, "Then what about the one to the south in our reality? Is it still...?"

As the words fell, no one spoke, but they all knew what he meant...

Planet X!!!

Professor Zhang Qinian pulled up a simulation of the actual Solar System, which looked no different from the current one. The southern gravitational source that was still flashing on the screen was indeed there, but it existed at the outer edge of the Solar System, so far from the real planets that almost no light escaped from it!!!

Yes, Planet X had vanished from sight, but the gravitational source...

...still existed.

"In the simulation, perhaps our details were slightly off; but whether in the data or the reality-based simulation, the gravitational source is still there. The gravitational disturbance is there, and the orbital anomalies are there. The orbits of those small bodies in the Kuiper Belt are all being led by it; dozens of small bodies are all crowding and rotating in the same direction."

"As for where exactly it is now and why we still can't see it—"

Hearing this, Zhang Lin and the other researchers looked at each other and shook their heads.

Perhaps that planet...

No matter what it's called, it could be Planet X, or it could be called...

Nibiru!

They continued the simulations.

In every simulation, as long as Bipolar Tidal Locking sources were set at Mars' poles, the final result was always the same—the southern planet would somehow drift to a place invisible to the naked eye.

It could be seen that the dark planet's orbit was such that when tiamat exploded, the planet was like a kite, flung toward the outer Solar System by the Sun's massive gravity at high speed, completely vanishing from sight.

No matter how they simulated it, that planet would be flung out after tiamat shattered, eventually coming to rest at the edge of the Solar System.

For the sake of rigor, Professor Zhang set the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter to normal data, i.e., an "unformed planet."

In this way, under a normal simulation, two conclusions emerged for Planet X.

[Conclusion 1: Planet X is a celestial body captured by the Sun's massive gravity, with a 50% probability!]

[Conclusion 2: Planet X is the largest Solar System object flung the furthest after the formation of the initial protoplanetary disk, with a 50% probability!]

Seeing this, Professor Zhang shook his head numbly. "When the probability is 50%, it means we're missing a parameter, and the computer can't provide a specific answer."

The other researchers shook their heads; instead, Jiang Zhe's hypothesis was the most reasonable, and its data support was the highest!

Time passed, and it was now past 4:00 AM.

The fluorescent lights in the computer room made everyone look deathly pale. Professor Zhang rubbed his aching eyes and looked at the two researchers sleeping on the table; they simply couldn't hold on any longer, their heads resting on their arms in a light sleep.

But Zhang Lin was still persevering.

Beside him was a cup of cold coffee. His vision was shaking as he stared at the screen, his fingers typing and pausing on the keyboard.

"Professor Zhang, I've finished the framework for the paper."

Professor Zhang Qinian leaned over and squinted at it.

[Revisiting the Origin of the Asteroid Belt Based on Orbital Mechanics Simulations and Spectroscopic Evidence: Validation of the tiamat Hypothesis]

[Abstract: Through N-body gravitational simulations and cross-comparison of existing observational spectroscopic data, this study validates that a rocky planet named tiamat, with a mass approximately 0.78 times that of Earth, once existed at 2.8 AU between Mars and Jupiter. This planet disintegrated approximately 2.8 billion years ago, and its fragments formed the current Asteroid Belt and were ejected into the Mars and Jupiter systems.]

[Further simulations indicate that Mars was once in a state of Bipolar Tidal Locking. With tiamat as the northern gravitational source, its disappearance led to the solidification of the northern uplift, including the Tharsis Plateau where Olympus Mons is located, while the existing southern gravitational source, Planet X, continued to act, forming the southern polar mountains.]

Professor Zhang Qinian looked at the title and couldn't help but sigh in relief. "tiamat—you used the name he mentioned in the broadcast?"

Zhang Lin nodded. "After all, that's what it's called on the sumerian tablets. Since our simulations and data confirm it, we might as well use that name. Consider it a tribute."

Professor Zhang Qinian continued reading. The paper detailed all of tonight's simulation processes—

The first failure, the second failure, the third success, then the simulation of the Asteroid Belt's disintegration, the simulation of Mars' Bipolar Tidal Locking, the spectroscopic matching data for Jupiter's moons and the Asteroid Belt, and the compositional comparison of Jupiter's Trojan asteroids.

A young researcher, having woken up at some point, leaned over and looked, his face full of wonder. "Holy crap, Brother Octopus, you're putting everything from tonight in there?"

Zhang Lin replied without looking back, "Of course, everything that can be written should be written. This might be the most important paper we publish in our lives."

The other researcher also woke up, rubbing his eyes as he approached. "What about the credits? How should we list the authors?"

Zhang Lin hesitated. "For the first one..."

He turned to look at Professor Zhang. Seeing that the professor didn't say anything, Zhang Lin finally typed a few characters: First Author: J.

Then came Professor Zhang's name, his own name, and the names of the other three colleagues.

A young researcher rubbed his hands excitedly. "Should we publish it now? Not wait until daylight?"

Professor Zhang shook his head gently. "What's the rush? We still need to check it a few more times. For a paper of this caliber, a single incorrect data point would make us a laughingstock."

He stood up, walked to the window, and pushed it open.

The cold wind of the approaching dawn blew in, refreshing him. "However, there's one thing I still haven't figured out."

"What?"

Professor Zhang Qinian turned around and looked at the southern gravitational source frozen on the screen.

That point of light hung lonely at the edge of the Solar System, flickering with a faint glow on the simulation map.

"Throughout tonight's broadcast, from Formula A to the Martian uplift, from Xenon-129 to the sumerian tablets—everything he said, we've verified."

"But there's one detail he never mentioned."

"What detail?"

Professor Zhang Qinian was silent for a few seconds.

"The one to the north that exploded is called tiamat, but what about the one to the south? If it's still there, and if it really returns every 3,600 years as the Sumerians said... then when is its next return?"

Zhang Lin and the other researchers were stunned and shook their heads one after another.

No one knew.

Upload!

With the paper uploaded, Professor Zhang finally led the researchers to the dormitory and fell fast asleep.

Little did they know, even uploaded at the break of dawn, their paper was bound to be eye-popping!