275: Chapter 275: The Moon's Origin from Tiamat

Wang Weiguo stood before the whiteboard, staring at the sketch, his mood recovering slightly. "A tragedy from four billion years ago, no, perhaps a tragedy from over a billion years ago. After all, as a remnant of tiamat, the Moon itself is the same age as tiamat. The survivors of tiamat eventually became the Moon after the great Earth-Moon impact. If this hypothesis holds..."

Professor Zhang Qinian walked to his side, staring at the diagram he had drawn himself. "Then the entire astronomical community, and even children's textbooks, will feature one sentence: 'The Moon originated from a primordial planet in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter'!"

Wang Weiguo grinned. "Perhaps they'll even add another sentence: 'The person who proposed this hypothesis, Professor Zhang Qinian'!"

"Oh, no!" He hurriedly denied. "I'm just repeating what others have said; it was J's, and little Jiang's."

Wang Weiguo patted him on the shoulder. "Alright, enough with the modesty. Without his reminder, you wouldn't have come up with this idea. Enough, let's start; I can't wait to see it."

He stepped back a few paces, sat down in a chair nearby, and watched everyone get busy while sipping his coffee.

Nowadays, he didn't care much about fame; he already had one foot in the grave.

As long as Professor Zhang could take over his chair in the future and mentor the young people, that would be enough.

Professor Zhang Qinian turned around to face the few young researchers who were already eager to try.

"Zhang Lin, you are responsible for the orbital simulation of tiamat's disintegration fragments."

"Use the initial parameters from the set we ran last time—fluctuating between 0.78 and 0.8 times the Earth's mass, an orbital position of 2.8 AU, and set the disintegration time to 2.8 billion years ago."

This was from the previous paper's simulation, so the data from the paper could be directly reused.

Zhang Lin nodded, his fingers tapping on the keyboard so fast they were a blur.

"Little Zhou, go pull the data on the early planetary orbital evolution of the Solar System, especially the orbital migration parameters of Jupiter and Saturn."

"The cause of tiamat's fragmentation is likely related to their gravitational perturbations."

The female researcher named Little Zhou acknowledged and opened another window.

"Little Liu, you are responsible for recording the data on the Moon's side. If the simulation shows large-mass fragments entering the inner Solar System later, you must track their orbits in real-time."

The young male researcher wearing glasses nodded.

Professor Zhang Qinian scanned the room one last time to confirm everything was correct.

"Start."

...

First simulation.

On the large screen in the conference room.

The early model of the Solar System rotated slowly.

Between Mars and Jupiter, a blue light point representing tiamat flickered.

Time began to accelerate.

One hundred million years, two hundred million years, five hundred million years...

When the simulation time advanced to 2.8 billion years ago, tiamat's orbit began to jitter.

"The orbital resonance between Jupiter and Saturn is strengthening." Zhang Lin stared at the data, his eyes narrowing. "The magnitude of the gravitational perturbation is increasing, and tiamat is gradually beginning to deviate from its original orbit."

The blue light point on the screen began to shake violently.

Suddenly, it shattered, and a burst of dazzling fire flashed.

Countless fragments splashed in all directions; most smashed toward Mars, some were captured by Jupiter's gravity, and a small portion flew toward the outer Solar System.

"Now, track the fragments entering the inner Solar System." Professor Zhang Qinian ordered.

Zhang Lin's fingers moved rapidly, adjusting the perspective and locking onto several larger fragments.

One of the pieces, with a mass about 1.5 times that of the current Moon, was drifting along an elliptical orbit toward the inner Solar System.

"This piece has potential." Zhang Lin's eyes lit up.

As time continued to accelerate, the fragment swept past Mars' orbit, but unfortunately, it was not captured and continued to drift inward.

"It's approaching Earth." Little Zhou held her breath.

On the screen.

The distance between the fragment and Earth was getting closer and closer.

Three million kilometers... two million kilometers... one million kilometers...

Just when everyone thought it was going to hit, the fragment grazed past Earth, passing at a very close distance, then continued to drift toward the Sun, passing straight by Venus, Mercury, and flying directly toward the Sun, eventually being swallowed.

"It failed." Zhang Lin couldn't help but sigh. "The speed was too fast, the angle too skewed; it wasn't captured by any planet's gravity at all."

Professor Zhang Qinian shook his head. "Continue."

...

Second simulation.

This time, they adjusted the initial conditions of tiamat's disintegration—assuming an extrasolar small celestial body intruded into the Solar System and directly hit tiamat between Mars and Jupiter.

The moment of fragmentation was more violent; firelight illuminated the entire starry sky, and countless fragments vaporized and scattered.

One fragment of suitable mass was pushed toward the inner Solar System by the impact force.

This time, it first grazed Mars, then grazed Earth; as always, it did not stop and continued to fly inward.

"It's going to fly toward Venus." Little Zhou reminded.

As the fragment entered the vicinity of Venus's orbit, it was briefly captured by Venus's gravitational field, orbiting Venus for about three million years, but because the orbit was unstable, it was flung out again.

"It was flung out!" Zhang Lin shook his head in disappointment.

In this simulation, Venus did not fling the fragment toward Earth at all; instead, after leaving Venus, the fragment continued to fly inward, grazed Mercury, and finally plunged into the Sun.

"Failed again." Little Liu sighed.

Professor Zhang Qinian rubbed his temples, speechless. "Again."

...

Third simulation, the fragment flew toward the Sun, failed.

"Again!"

...

Tenth simulation, the fragment flew toward Mars, no larger fragments sped toward Earth, failed.

"Again!"

...

After thirty-seven times.

Everyone was already dazed and exhausted.

Wang Weiguo couldn't help but ask: "Could the initial conditions be wrong, or is it just impossible? After all, in the global astronomical community, are we really the first to simulate the origin of tiamat and the Moon?"

After seeing it fail more than thirty times, Wang Weiguo gradually sobered up.

Was he trusting Professor Zhang too much?

Professor Zhang frowned. "That shouldn't be right. Could what J hinted at be wrong? But I am certain that the direction and possibilities were derived from his hints!"

Just then, Zhang Lin narrowed his eyes and suggested, "Professor Zhang, can we assume that after tiamat shattered, that large-mass fragment didn't fly directly into the inner Solar System, but was first accelerated by Jupiter's gravitational slingshot effect and wandered in the outer Solar System for a long time?"

Upon hearing this, Professor Zhang Qinian instantly woke from his self-doubt. "That makes sense. If it went around a big circle before coming back, the angle and speed of the orbit might be more suitable. Quick, do it like that."

Zhang Lin took a deep breath and entered the new parameters.

The simulation began again.

This time, tiamat successfully shattered.

A large-mass fragment was captured by Jupiter's gravity; it didn't fall directly into Jupiter but followed an elongated elliptical orbit and was eventually flung toward the outer Solar System.

It slowly circled and wandered near the Kuiper Belt in the outer Solar System for 250 million years.

Then, at an unexplained point in time, it was disturbed by the gravity of a passing asteroid and eerily began to turn around, flying toward the inner Solar System along a new orbit.

"It's been a billion years!" Little Zhou whispered.

"Continue."

1.5 billion years, 2 billion years, 2.5 billion years...

When the simulation time advanced to 2.6 billion years, this fragment finally re-entered the inner Solar System along with a batch of smaller asteroids.

Most of the other asteroids were captured by Jupiter and Saturn.

But it survived; its orbital angle and speed were completely different from before.

"It's passing Jupiter first." Zhang Lin gasped and began to report in sync. "It wasn't captured by Jupiter. It's still passing Mars, not captured, continuing to fly toward the inner Solar System."

"It passed Earth. This time the distance is very close, but very unfortunately, it still didn't hit."

"Continuing inward, Professor, it's approaching Venus."

On the large screen, the fragment grazed Venus.

This time, it was firmly captured by Venus's gravitational field and began to orbit Venus.

"It worked!" Little Zhou covered her mouth, unable to help but cheer.

"Don't rush!" Professor Zhang Qinian raised his hand to stop her. "This is only the first step."

The simulation was still continuing.

The fragment, which should now be called the Venus-Guard, orbited Venus for about 300 million years.

Then, at 2.9 billion years, another orbital resonance between Jupiter and Saturn successfully triggered a gravitational field disturbance throughout the Solar System.

Venus's orbit was fine-tuned, and the orbit of that Venus-Guard began to become unstable.

"It's about to be flung out." Little Liu stared at the screen, his heart in his throat.

Sure enough, the Venus-Guard was about to break free from Venus's gravitational field; it almost got flung into the direction near Mercury several times.

On the large screen.

The rotation of the Venus-Guard was accelerated countless times.

Behind it, Snail-like spiral patterns vaguely appeared.

Just when everyone was on tenterhooks, the Venus-Guard was flung out at the boundary point on the inner side of Venus.

Strangely!

After the Venus-Guard was flung out, it still had the inertia to continue its spiral movement.

And Earth was located on the right side of Venus.

On the large screen, the orbit of the Venus-Guard and the orbit of Earth were about to intersect, making Wang Weiguo, Professor Zhang, and the others all stand up, their expressions very serious, expectant, and furrowed.

"Three million kilometers left." Zhang Lin reported in a low voice.

Two million kilometers, one million kilometers, five hundred thousand kilometers, two hundred thousand kilometers.

"It's going to hit!" Little Zhou covered her eyes, unable to bear looking.

On the screen, the distance between the Venus-Guard and the primordial Earth shortened rapidly.

But at the very last moment, it did not hit Earth directly, but successfully grazed past Earth.

The moment it grazed past, a huge impact followed.

The entire large screen began to shake violently.

The release of huge energy erupted into sky-high flames, causing a part of the Earth's crust to be torn apart, mixed with the fragments of that Venus-Guard, and thrown into space.

Due to the accelerated time playback, the Earth's high-temperature magma and rock debris formed a huge ring around Earth, resembling the rings of Saturn.

Then, over the next few million years, those debris gradually gathered and condensed under gravity, eventually forming a new celestial body.

At this point, the simulation screen slowly froze.

An ancient planet successfully appeared 25,000 kilometers away from Earth.

Zhang Lin sat up abruptly and inserted a human-perspective data onto the primordial magma Earth.

I saw a red celestial body 15~20 times larger than the current one appearing near the Earth in the scorching sky, like a red blood moon; that was the Moon!!!

"Holy shit!"

Immediately after, a series of prompts appeared on the large screen.

[Impact body of the great Earth-Moon impact: Theia, source analysis!]

[Probability of coming from tiamat disintegration fragments: 74%]

[Probability of coming from other celestial bodies near the Kuiper Belt in the Solar System: 21%]

[Unknown source: 5%]

Looking at the popped-up virtual simulation, the conference room was silent for a full five seconds.

Then, Zhang Lin couldn't help but narrow his eyes,

"74%..."

Little Zhou covered her mouth, her eyes slightly red.

Little Liu fiercely took off his glasses, his eyes shooting out intense light; he rubbed his eyes hard—he hadn't seen wrong!!!

Professor Zhang Qinian stared at that line of numbers, motionless.

Wang Weiguo looked at the simulation results with surprise.

You know, this was all based on data derived from the real conditions that might have been born in the early Solar System.

So...

The Moon originally came from a large planet in the Kuiper Belt; that is correct; the Earth-Moon impact theory is correct.

But they had found a more suitable large planet fragment; it was a remnant from tiamat!!!

"Holy shit!!!"

I don't know who shouted first.

Immediately after, the conference room exploded.