249: Chapter 249: Nationwide University Surge

At 5:00 AM, the paper was successfully uploaded.

A new title appeared on the arXiv server: "Empirical Research on the Origin of the Asteroid Belt Based on Orbital Mechanics Simulation and Spectral Evidence: A Possible Verification of tiamat."

Authors: J, Professor Zhang Qinian, Zhang Lin, etc.

Professor Zhang walked unsteadily into the dormitory building with four researchers whose dark circles were larger than a panda's.

What they didn't know was that on the computer screen, the paper had been approved instantly upon publication without any review, and the comments were jumping wildly!

"Damn, J has released another ultimate move!"

"Every paper related to J tops the charts in no time—across the entire internet!"

"I've got to see what this tiamat is all about!!!"

"..."

Around 5:20 AM, related topics began to appear on domestic astronomy forums.

[Breaking: The National Astronomical Observatory released a paper in the early morning, verifying the tiamat hypothesis!]

The comment section grew at a rate visible to the naked eye!

"Holy crap, Professor Zhang Qinian's team?"

"The first author is J. Last time, wasn't it Professor Ouyang and Professor Guan who published a paper for J? Why is it Professor Zhang Qinian this time? Am I seeing things?"

"Is J that big shot who did the online postdoc exam on a livestream?"

"Look closely, Professor Zhang Qinian and his team added him. It means: the idea is his, and the verification was done by us."

"So the national team has stepped in to endorse J?"

"Endorse? They ran the data; this is called empirical evidence, not an endorsement."

"I haven't read it yet. What's the core conclusion of the paper?"

"Simply put: at the 2.8 AU position between Mars and Jupiter, there once existed a planet with 0.78 times the mass of Earth that exploded 2.87 billion years ago. 36% of the fragments hit Mars, and 18% were splattered onto Jupiter; the composition of Ganymede and Callisto matches the Asteroid Belt by 87%, and the Trojan asteroids match by 91%..."

*Hiss*... Damn!

"My scalp is freaking tingling."

...

As time passed, it was suddenly 6:30 AM, and the Weibo morning hot searches began to climb.

"National Astronomical Observatory Verifies Solar Fission Hypothesis and tiamat Hypothesis"

"What's going on? Wasn't the hot search last night still about Xiao Yu's Brother? I wake up and even the National Research Institute is involved?"

"Last night during the livestream, Xiao Yu's Brother talked about the Solar Fission Hypothesis. Early this morning, the National Astronomical Observatory ran it through a supercomputer—and it's all correct!!!"

???

"What do you mean by 'all correct'?"

"It means: a planet really did explode next to Mars, as simulated by a supercomputer."

"Damn, so what I heard last night wasn't a sci-fi story, but non-fiction?"

"God J is truly a god, no arguments allowed."

"..."

7:50 AM, on the morning rush hour subway.

Countless exhausted corporate drones took out their phones to check the Weibo hot searches.

Who would have thought the number one hot search wasn't entertainment, but a professional academic one.

"Our Planets Might Have Been Split Off; The State Steps in to Endorse!"

After reading the details, some of the corporate drones felt it was incredibly novel but couldn't find anyone to share it with.

So, they started sharing the good news with the people next to them who were also on their phones.

"Wow, you're looking at the Weibo hot searches too? Did you see that arXiv paper made the list?"

"I saw it. tiamat of the Sumerian Civilization isn't a damn myth after all. The National Research Institute personally simulated it. Holy crap!"

"So the Asteroid Belt between our Jupiter and Mars really is the remains of tiamat?"

"Yes. It's not that it failed to form; tiamat actually exploded."

"How did it explode?"

"The paper didn't say. It only verified that it exploded, not how. There’s no data for the 'how.' Anyway, J said in the livestream it might have been a super civilization, or... natural causes. He didn't give a specific possibility!"

"Then what was the reason for the explosion?"

"Don't ask. If you do, the answer is that there's a high-tech civilization on Nibiru that bombed it!"

"..."

9:00 AM, the astronomy office of a university in Sichuan Province.

Three graduate students were blocking the door of the Head of the Astronomy Department.

"Director, I know you're in there! Open the door if you've got the guts! Open up, open up, open up!"

Creeeak~

The door was pushed open.

A graduate student said enthusiastically, "Professor, have you seen Professor Zhang Qinian's paper?"

The slightly plump director in a black suit took off his glasses. "I've seen it. I was woken up by a call after 5:00 AM saying there was a paper on arXiv I had to read."

"What do you think?"

"What else can I think?" The Head of the Astronomy Department fell silent for two and a half seconds. "The data is real, the simulation is rigorous, and the conclusion is revolutionary. I can only say the National Research Institute hopped on this bandwagon beautifully."

"What about J? How did J know?" a graduate student asked.

"J?" The department head chuckled. "He provides the revolutionary ideas, and the national team handles the grounding facts. Isn't that a great partnership?"

"As for how he knew, how the hell would I know!"

...

As time passed, at 11:30 AM, in a classroom at a university in Shanghai.

Halfway through his lecture, the chubby professor took off his glasses and scanned the audience.

"Class, a major event has occurred in the field of astronomy from last night until today. You should have all heard about it."

The youthful students below nodded one after another.

"We were supposed to talk about exoplanets this session, but since everyone is discussing it, let's spend ten minutes talking about this paper."

The professor turned around, took out his laser pointer remote, and the large screen suddenly lit up.

On the screen, a simulation image of the Solar System appeared, with the paper written by Professor Zhang Qinian's team on the right.

"Let's look at the simulation part first. Professor Zhang Qinian and his team ran three sets of parameters; the first two failed, and the third succeeded."

"What was the successful set of parameters?"

"It was reducing Jupiter's initial mass by 15% and simulating the early Solar System..."

"..."

The professor spoke incessantly, and the students' expressions shifted dramatically as they listened, eventually turning into complete astonishment.

"As you can see, what is the conclusion?" The chubby professor's lips curled slightly, as if he had personally participated in the paper, feeling a great sense of achievement!

A student in black clothes raised their hand tremblingly. "It was blown out."

Another female student added, "Besides that, Mars was once a shared moon of two planets!!!!"

The chubby professor smiled slightly. "Then, what was the cause of the explosion?"

As the words fell, no one in the audience answered.

"As for this question, I'll leave it for you to think about after class."

As the bell rang for the end of class.

The bewildered students rushed out of the classroom and began whispering to each other.

"What is the professor doing????"

"He actually gave us an unsolved mystery as homework. Does he think I'm a super genius like J?"

"Exactly! If I knew that, I'd make Professor Lao Hua of Astronomy kneel and sing 'Conquer' to me!"

Another group of astronomy students was discussing excitedly.

"Guys, did you see that there really was a planet between Mars and Jupiter? It's called tiamat, and it's been simulated!"

"Of course I saw it. In the entire lecture hall, whether it was physics, astronomy, or even medical professors, everyone mentioned it. It's all thanks to our bro, and then the National Research Institute stepped in. And what happened? Well, 'the guy was right'!"

*Hiss*...

"And the planet's mass was even simulated. Only an explosion of a planet with 0.78 times Earth's mass could account for 4% of the Asteroid Belt, with fragments everywhere."

...

Situations like this were happening around every studious student across the country.

Of course, such cutting-edge news wouldn't reach the factories.

In the evening, while people in universities across the country were still immersed in the heated discussions sparked by the paper.

It was just early morning in the USA across the ocean.

Outside Washington D.C., in Greenbelt, Maryland, at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

The warm morning sun filtered through the blinds as Mike, a young researcher in the Astrophysics Division, sat down with his coffee.

He had stayed up late last night binge-watching the American TV show "MDZZ" and almost couldn't get up this morning.

While the computer was booting up, he bit into a donut and casually clicked on the daily updated papers on arXiv.

He originally intended to just glance at the titles and decide whether to read them after finishing his coffee.

But one of the titles caught his attention.

《Exploration of the Origin of the Asteroid Belt Based on Orbital Mechanics Simulation and Spectral Evidence: Verification of the tiamat Hypothesis》

Author list: J, Professor Zhang Qinian...

"J?"

Mike put down his bread, his expression gradually becoming serious. He remembered this signature.

Last month, Ouyang Baili and Guan Jingming had published several very cutting-edge papers, and the first author was J—that crazy guy who proposed that parallel universes might exist inside black holes.

"Published by people from China's National Astronomical Observatory?" He curiously clicked on the paper and casually scanned the first paragraph of the abstract.

"Holy shit!"

Linda, a colleague in the next cubicle, was startled by him and turned to look at Mike. "Fuck you, you scared me! Did you see a ghost?"

Mike didn't speak; his eyes were fixed on the screen, and his pupils dilated at a rate visible to the naked eye.

The first line:

[Through N-body gravitational simulations and cross-comparison of existing observational spectral data, this study verifies that a rocky planet with approximately 0.78 times the mass of Earth once existed at the 2.8 AU position between Mars and Jupiter. This planet disintegrated approximately 2.8 billion years ago...]

"Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!"

Mike shouted three times in a row, finally alarming half the office.

Linda walked over with her coffee, looking dissatisfied, and stood behind him to look at the screen. "What on earth scared you like that? Wait, what is this?"

She read a few lines, and her beautiful eyes also slowly widened. "The planets in the Solar System were split off?"

"It's not planetary fission!" Mike said in disbelief. "It's that between Mars and Jupiter, there was once a planet about the size of Earth, and then it—exploded!"

"Exploded?" Linda looked suspicious. "Are you sure you didn't misread the title? Is it an astronomy paper or a sci-fi novel?"

"See for yourself!" Mike pointed at the screen. "This was published by China's National Astronomical Observatory, and it's based on simulated data!"

Linda leaned closer to the screen and quickly skimmed through the paper.

When she saw the two lines about the disintegration 2.8 billion years after the birth of the Solar System and 36% of the fragments splattering toward Mars, she gasped.

"Oh my god..."

She paused and continued reading.

[Further simulations indicate that Mars was once in a state of tidal locking with dual gravitational sources. tiamat served as the northern gravitational source, and its disappearance led to the solidification of the North Pole bulge (including the Tharsis Plateau where Olympus Mons is located), while the continuous influence of the existing southern gravitational source, Planet X, formed the mountain ranges at the edge of the southern Hellas Planitia.]

"Mars was a shared moon of two planets?" Linda frowned. "My god, are you kidding me? A shared moon?"

Mike took a deep breath and clicked on the simulation animation screenshots attached at the end of the paper.

The first image: In the early Solar System, there was a large point of light to the north and south of Mars, like two giants holding a small red ball.

The second image: At the 2.8-billion-year mark, the northern point of light suddenly burst into countless fragments, some scattering toward Mars and others flying toward Jupiter.

The third image: The North Pole of Mars began to bulge slowly, and the plateau where Olympus Mons is located was being pulled up by a mysterious force.

The fourth image: The southern point of light disappeared to the edge of the Solar System, but the bulging of the Martian South Pole continued...

After Mike finished watching, he was stunned for a long while, completely speechless!

Beside him, Linda had already taken out her phone to take photos and send screenshots. "I have to send this to Director Greg."

"Send it to Greg? Why are you sending it to the director?"

"Why? Don't you think the director should know about this?"

...