262: Chapter 262: The Mysterious Quarter Between Venus and Earth (3rd Update)

As his words fell, the previously lively livestream chat suddenly froze.

In a room of 17 million people, the chat mysteriously vanished entirely!

After a brief moment of dead silence, the chat came flooding in like a tsunami.

"？？？？？？"

"Venus? Did I hear that right? The Moon came from Venus?"

"Holy crap, this is even more mind-blowing than the 'hollow Moon' theory!"

"Isn't the Moon Earth's satellite? How is it suddenly related to Venus?"

"Brother, don't scare me like that!"

[Online Astronomy Teacher A: Ah, is it really that intense?]

[Online Astronomy Teacher B: Kids, don't believe it, absolutely do not believe this. If he continues to popularize science like this, I won't dare to bring you all here to watch!]

[Online Astronomy Teacher C: Kids, haha, crazy, simply crazy. This is a frontier astronomical hypothesis; as long as he provides a corresponding, self-consistent possibility, I will personally help him complete the paper!]

"To the astronomy teachers from all over the country upstairs, you don't need to worry about this. Experts from the National Astronomical Observatory and Huaqing University will personally help him complete the paper. It's just that this time, he might be getting a bit carried away; it's starting to get too sci-fi!"

"..."

These remarks of his left the newly arrived astronomy teachers looking troubled.

I brought the kids to watch your livestream, and you pull this on me? How am I supposed to teach astronomy class in the future?

...

Qingfeng Temple.

Zheng Ming stood up abruptly, as if he had seen a ghost.

"Venus!" He pointed at the screen, his gaze frantically scanning Celestial Master Zhang, Wang Chongyang, and Robert. "Look at this, he actually claims the Moon came from Venus. What on earth is going on?"

Although Celestial Master Zhang and Wang Chongyang didn't understand these things, they could hear the insanity in his words, and both their brows furrowed tightly.

Robert gasped, shocked by Jiang Zhe's boldness. "This, how is this possible? Venus is the second planet from the Sun, its orbit is inside Earth's. How could it possibly give a satellite to Earth?"

He shook his head repeatedly in disbelief.

"This doesn't conform to orbital mechanics, not at all."

...

National Astronomical Observatory.

Director Wang Weiguo, Professor Zhang Qinian, and the young researchers had just finished their work and were preparing to leave when Professor Zhang suddenly suggested continuing to watch the livestream. They gathered in the conference room and hurriedly turned it on.

"Luckily we didn't miss it." Director Wang let out a sigh of relief, watching the large screen still lit up.

As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Zhe's statement [The Moon came from Venus] came from the screen.

Director Wang's hand, just about to take a sip of tea, trembled slightly. "Excuse me?"

"The Moon came from Venus? Is that even a thing?"

Professor Zhang Qinian looked left and right, up and down, and discovering that everyone else had the same bewildered expression, he thought he had gone crazy.

"Oh boy, it's over; he has completely let himself go!"

The young researchers in the conference room, led by Zhang Lin, were all stunned.

"Holy crap, is it really this explosive?"

"So explosive right from the start?"

"How can he justify this? How could our astronomical community ever say the Moon came from Venus?"

Zhang Lin clicked his tongue in wonder and gave a thumbs up. "As expected of J; Arabian Nights are his daily fare. If he can still make this self-consistent and logically coherent this time, the astronomical community will be thrown into turmoil yet again because of his remarks!"

...

Inside the Huaqing University physics dormitory.

Professor Wu looked like he wanted to cry but had no tears,

Then, he widened his eyes and stared fixedly at the screen.

"Fine, you're awesome!"

Ouyang Baili secretly admired him, "You really won't stop until you say something shocking!"

Guan Jingming froze for a second, then spoke with difficulty, "The Moon came from Venus?"

Li Mo said quietly from the side, "Teacher, this is even more outrageous than it being hollow, right?"

Guan Jingming nodded gently, "Yes, Little Li, it is truly outrageous!"

"..." Li Mo rolled his eyes at him, "Teacher, I'm not a eunuch!"

Elsewhere, in Principal Fu's office, Ren Xiaoyao and the others, as well as the four old professors in the History Staff Quarters, also had their hearts in their throats.

He isn't walking a tightrope; he is walking on a damn piece of yarn!!!

It could snap at any moment!

...

In the villa living room, on the sofas facing each other.

Steel Rain's expression changed rapidly due to Jiang Zhe's words. "Ah? Brother, Ve, Venus? Brother, I'm talking about the planet; you better be talking about the celebrity Venus."

Thinking she had misheard, she hurriedly tried to smooth things over.

Jiang Zhe smiled slightly and shook his head gently. "Not the celebrity, it is the celestial body. Do you think it's impossible?"

Steel Rain stood up abruptly, her pair of steel arms propped on the table. "Brother, how is this possible? How could the Moon come from Venus? Even if there is a 'capture theory' in science, the Moon supposedly wandered in from outside the Solar System and was then captured!"

"By what you're saying, the Moon was originally Venus's satellite, and then it was captured by Earth?"

"Do you want to check how far apart these two places are?"

"You previously said the Moon is very large and simulated it for me—Earth's gravity could barely capture the Moon!"

"The astronomical capture theory states that the Moon was very small at the beginning, and after colliding with Earth, it ejected Earth's material into space, which was then slowly gathered by Earth's gravity onto the Moon → causing the Moon to gradually get larger!"

"Although, no super crater from a Moon impact has been detected on Earth."

Watching Steel Rain start to refute him, Jiang Zhe was inexplicably happy. "Good, you can debate; extra points for tonight!"

However, he still calmly picked up his tablet. "Come, Steel Rain, Brother will first give you a popular science lesson about Venus."

He pulled up a photo of Venus that looked like hell, covered in thick gray-yellow clouds.

"Venus, the second planet from the Sun in the Solar System, is about 108 million kilometers from the Sun; its mass is about 81.5% of Earth's, and its diameter is about 12,104 kilometers, just a little bit smaller than Earth."

Steel Rain sat down and nodded; she knew at least some of these basic facts.

"Venus's orbital period is 224.7 Earth days; but the most special thing is its rotation. It is the only major planet in the Solar System that rotates in reverse, and its rotation speed is extremely slow; one Venusian day is equivalent to 243 Earth days."

"In other words, a day on Venus is longer than its year."

Steel Rain was thoughtful. "I know this, I learned it in astronomy class."

"But there is one thing that your astronomy class might not have taught."

Jiang Zhe swiped his finger on the tablet and pulled up another image. Venus was suspended alone near the Sun, with no satellites around it. "Venus has no satellites."

Steel Rain was stunned. "No satellites?"

"Correct." Jiang Zhe nodded gently. "Mercury has no satellites, and Venus has no satellites either. Earth has the Moon, Mars has two small satellites, and Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune all have dozens of satellites."

"Mercury has no satellites because of the Sun's gravity."

"Mercury..."

"Satellites orbit planets. If Mercury were to have a satellite, it would essentially be in a tug-of-war with the Sun; for the current Mercury, this tug-of-war balance point is about 22,700 kilometers from Mercury's center."

"If the satellite is within this distance, Mercury's gravity prevails, and the satellite is safe."

"If the satellite is outside this distance, the Sun's gravity prevails, and it will be snatched away by the Sun or its orbit will be disrupted."

"In fact, the answer to why Mercury has no satellites is precisely this: it is too close to the Sun. Whenever a small celestial body drifts by, there is a high probability that it will be snatched away by the Sun, or it might be captured by Venus, the second closest planet to the Sun, resulting in Mercury having no satellites."

"And Venus has no satellites..."

Speaking to this point, he nodded slightly. "Have you ever wondered why Venus has no satellites?"

Steel Rain shook her head. "I don't know!"

Jiang Zhe smiled slightly and pulled up a set of simulations of the early Solar System. Except for Mercury, other celestial bodies had satellites orbiting their planets. "According to astronomers' simulations, Venus actually had a satellite in its early days."

Steel Rain's beautiful eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Yes." Jiang Zhe pointed to the scene in the animation. "Probably in the early stages of the Solar System's formation, Venus had once captured a fairly large satellite; the mass of this satellite was about one-quarter of Venus's."

"But this satellite later disappeared. Why?"

He zoomed in on Venus and then pulled up a series of various parameters. They were somewhat complex, so he didn't show them to Steel Rain.

"Because there was a problem with Venus's tidal locking and orbital evolution; that satellite either crashed into Venus or was thrown out of orbit, and eventually disappeared without a trace."

Steel Rain nodded thoughtfully.

At this time, the livestream chat also began to increase.

"Venus once had a satellite?"

"Wait, I think I feel something!"

"Don't talk, listen to Brother!"

"..."

Watching Steel Rain nod thoughtfully, Jiang Zhe continued to speak.

"Steel Rain, you should already understand the basics of Venus; Venus once had a satellite, but it disappeared later. When it disappeared, nobody knows; the scientific community can only speculate that it once had a satellite."

"Besides this, from the data Brother just gave, have you discovered a very obvious possibility?"

Steel Rain blinked her beautiful eyes. Her puppy brain ran for a while, but she didn't catch the keyword, so she shook her head. "What possibility?"

Jiang Zhe looked at her and spoke slowly. "Venus once had a satellite, and its volume was—of Venus—"

Steel Rain blurted out, "One-quarter!"

The moment the words fell, the livestream chat surged again.

"One-quarter!"

"Venus's satellite was 1/4 of Venus!"

"Yes, I think I've seen this somewhere, or maybe I heard an astronomy teacher talk about this!"

"..."

His gaze fell on Steel Rain's curious face, and Jiang Zhe asked back with a smile on his face.

"Steel Rain, what is Earth's volume, and what is Venus's volume?"

Steel Rain gave the professional data without hesitation. "Earth's volume is 1.083 × 10¹² cubic kilometers, and Venus's volume is 9.38 × 10¹¹ cubic kilometers."

"About the same size." Jiang Zhe nodded, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly. "Then what is the Moon's volume relative to Earth's?"

Steel Rain was stunned at first, and then her expression instantly froze. "One, one-quarter?"

She suddenly gasped and began to repeat it, but her voice felt a bit ethereal. "The Moon's volume is one-quarter of Earth's volume; Venus's missing satellite was also one-quarter of Venus."

"And Venus and Earth are twin brothers..."

Talking to herself up to this point, Steel Rain suddenly looked up, her beautiful eyes filled with shock. "Brother, I, Steel Rain, damn!"

As her words fell, the whole scene fell silent.

The livestream chat suddenly disappeared.

The livestream room with 18 million people once again fell into an eerie, dead silence!!!