264: Chapter 264: So the ocean was actually a giant crater from the Earth-Moon impact?

Hearing the answer Jiang Zhe guided Xiao Yu to give, the nearly twenty million viewers were stunned for a moment, then their eyes lit up.

"The ocean, it's the ocean!"

"Damn, I always thought the ocean was formed by Earth's own tectonic plate movements. Turns out it's a damn crater?"

"An elliptical Earth—such a simple concept, yet I've never thought of it!"

"Big Brother is awesome! This explanation is 250 times more logical than the textbooks!"

"Coming from an astronomy online class; our teacher is already stunned!"

"History class representative reporting in! This is way more exciting than our textbooks!"

"Come on, keep going, give us more!"

"..."

Some astronomy teachers lurking in the chat were left scalp-tinglingly amazed by Jiang Zhe's theory.

They realized now that this wasn't pseudoscience, but an ultra-cutting-edge astronomical rhapsody!

It wasn't just fantasy; he could even provide elusive evidence. It was precisely this tangible yet intangible feeling that made them feel like they had wasted half their lives teaching!!

...

At this moment, at the National Astronomical Observatory.

Director Wang Weiguo stared at the bare, elliptical Earth on the screen, stripped of its oceans, land, and poles, and was frozen in place.

"This..." Director Wang gasped, his brows tightly furrowed, "Such a simple and easy-to-understand truth, yet we completely overlooked it?"

Professor Zhang Qinian also shook his fist in a daze, "That's right, this is clearly the giant crater left behind by the initial Moon-Earth collision!"

He stood up, walked quickly to the projection, pointed at the elliptical outline, and turned to face the crowd.

"Look, during the early stages of Earth's formation, influenced by its own gravity, it should have been a nearly perfect sphere."

"But what does this elliptical shape indicate? It means it suffered a massive impact in its early stages, deforming the entire crust!"

Zhang Lin and several researchers looked at each other, their faces filled with disbelief.

"So that ultra-wide crater?" a female researcher said, her beautiful eyes darting, "Turned into the oceans we have now?"

Zhang Lin couldn't help but swallow hard, "The Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the India Ocean, and so on—they're all actually just different parts of the same impact crater?"

Professor Zhang Qinian nodded, his eyes burning, "Mainstream geology has always claimed the oceans are the result of tectonic plate movement. But if the Moon-Earth collision really occurred, the scale of that crater would be enough to smash half the Earth! We often simulate this with software ourselves, and the results are exactly like this. Xiao Jiang is right; the oceans formed when seawater flooded in later, eventually becoming the oceans."

Director Wang Weiguo took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, "This explanation is far more logical than the material we provide to the Bureau of Education for writing textbooks."

...

Qingfeng Temple.

Celestial Master Zhang heard this, his face showing astonishment, which then turned into a knowing smile.

"The Great Dao is simple. A planet formed by the Sun's gravity must initially become spherical due to its rotation; yet Earth is elliptical!"

He looked at Wang Chongyang, "That is because it is the mark left by the Earth and Moon colliding long ago, which has now evolved into the bottomless ocean. In this hypothesis, the oceans don't necessarily have to be the result of continental plate movement."

Wang Chongyang nodded with deep, profound eyes, "The ancients said, 'The heavens tilt to the northwest, the earth sinks to the southeast.' Now it seems this 'earth sinks' refers to this impact crater."

Zheng Ming sat opposite Wang Chongyang, his brows tightly furrowed.

He stared fixedly at the screen and couldn't help but speak up, "While what he says is plausible, this conflicts with the theory that the Moon didn't exist 12,000 years ago. The Moon only arrived 12,000 years ago, but this impact crater is from billions of years ago. The timelines don't match. I want to see how you reconcile this!"

He chuckled inwardly, finally having caught a flaw in Xiaoyu's brother's argument.

Robert shook his head with an intriguing expression, "No, these are two different things."

Zheng Ming turned to look at Robert, "What do you mean, two different things?"

Robert watched the screen, pointing at Jiang Zhe with a serious expression, "What he is talking about now is a derivative viewpoint of the Moon-Earth collision theory, discussing the collision and fusion of the Moon and Earth billions of years ago. The theory that the Moon didn't exist 12,000 years ago refers to the point in time when the Moon was captured by Earth."

"These two timelines do not conflict. Billions of years ago, the Moon and Earth may have already had an intimate contact; that collision formed the foundation of the Earth-Moon system. Later, the Moon was flung out and orbited Venus for a long time, until it was captured by Earth again 12,000 years ago."

"After all, Venus and the Moon are the second and third bodies located at the edge of the Sun; in the ultra-ancient era, Venus and the Moon might not have been as far apart as we imagine; it is highly possible they were very close!!!"

"If this is the case, then the claim that global myths didn't record the Moon 12,000 years ago makes perfect sense, because the Moon had indeed just returned at that time."

Veins throbbed on Zheng Ming's forehead, and his fists tightened.

Reasonable as it may be...

He looked at Robert with a face full of disdain, frantically complaining in his heart.

Damn it, have you become his fan? What did I bring you here for???

...

Inside the Huaqing University physics dormitory.

Professor Wu gasped, "This theory is purely the Moon-Earth collision theory, only he has supplemented it with evidence. The Moon could have originally come from outside the Solar System. Over time, the Moon became a satellite of Venus, and then became a satellite of Earth; it could even be the extremely rare 'binary tidal locking'!"

"Venus's abnormal rotation means that the Venusian satellite escaped Venus's gravitational range and was then captured by Earth..."

Finishing this explanation, he paused and looked at Ouyang Baili, Guan Jingming, and Li Mo with an expression of disbelief,

"Holy crap, this actually seems to be valid!"

Ouyang Baili rested his cheek on his hand, the corners of his mouth slightly raised, "Of course. Nothing Jiang Zhe does surprises me; this is just his normal level. Next, as long as a geological team goes to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to drill and take samples, and analyzes the rock composition at the edge of that impact crater, the origin of the Moon will be revealed in the near future!"

Guan Jingming nodded excitedly, his eyes burning, "The formation of the Earth-Moon system finally has a self-consistent model!"

...

Inside the History Staff Quarters.

Professor Chen Runzhi and the others looked at each other, all seeing the excitement on each other's faces.

...

Villa living room.

Xiao Yu recovered from her previous shock, her beautiful eyes shining, "Big Brother, although this is all very magical, what does it have to do with 12,000 years ago?"

"The Moon-Earth collision you mentioned was billions of years ago, but you previously said there was no Moon in global myths 12,000 years ago. These two timelines don't match!"

Inside Qingfeng Temple, Zheng Ming's mouth curled up, and he secretly gave Xiao Yu a thumbs up.

Xiao Yu's question voiced the inner thoughts of him and countless others.

Jiang Zhe just smiled slightly, "What I just said was about something even further back. The story between the Moon, Venus, and Earth billions of years ago."

"It is actually possible that the Moon just appeared near Earth 12,000 years ago."

Xiao Yu was stunned, "Huh? What do you mean?"

"The story from long ago and the story from 12,000 years ago can be different chapters of the same story." Jiang Zhe looked at her and nodded slightly, "12,000 years ago, the Moon could have just returned to the vicinity of Earth; this is also a bolder possibility."

"If I take global myths as the baseline and starting point, then the possibility that the Moon really just returned to Earth 12,000 years ago is not non-existent."

"It's just too inconceivable, so I didn't really want to say it."

"No, Big Brother, don't! Don't!" Xiao Yu quickly stood up, poured tea and water for Jiang Zhe, picked up an orange, peeled it, and handed it to Jiang Zhe, "Big Brother, no matter what, I want to hear it, I want to hear it!"

At this moment, the comments from millions of viewers in the live stream were flooding in frantically.

"We want to hear it!"

"Keep going, Big Brother!"

"Don't stop, don't stop!"

"Wang Laoniu drinks are ready, ace pilot is ready!"

"..."

It wasn't just the viewers; countless teachers, experts, and secretive scientists also sat up straight, their gazes becoming focused.

Today's Xia Country is exactly what is missing such big shots who can provide ideas and possibilities for world astronomy.

Watching Xiao Yu's impatient appearance, Jiang Zhe nodded speechlessly, "Since that's the case, let's continue."

He picked up his tablet and operated it with his fingers.

"Xiao Yu, do you know why the shape of the Moon on some ancient murals is incorrect?"

Xiao Yu blinked, "The shape is incorrect?"

She had indeed seen this before when looking at materials, such as the Moon being in the wrong position in the sky, or having the wrong shape.

Could there be a secret hidden inside?

Weren't those just random drawings by ancient people who didn't know any better?