Chapter 697 - 677 GW180509_2

Why send gravity waves? Is it just because of the nuclear explosion, or is there another reason? On what basis?

How did the ’emitter’ on Mars detect a nuclear explosion nearly 60 million kilometers away?

Who built the ’emitter,’ and for what purpose?

To whom are the gravity waves sent, and do aliens exist within the Solar System?

"First, information about the hydrogen bomb explosion is conveyed at the speed of light."

Xie Liaofu was the first to speak:

"We can basically determine that Mars immediately sent the information after detecting the hydrogen bomb explosion, and the delay in the middle can be ignored. This shows that there is a long-term active monitoring station on Mars capable of generating an instant response.

The second point, which I think actually needs more attention, is why it was the Moon. Was ’it’ only concerned with the Moon, or would it have reacted to anything outside Earth?

The Moon must hold some special position in this affair, and we also happen to have the capability to conduct deep exploration of the Moon. If possible, I would also suggest conducting several more nuclear tests, although this would be very risky."

"No way!"

Xiao Okada almost immediately rejected Xie Liaofu’s last proposal:

"We must consider the worst-case scenarios. We cannot continue to provoke an alien civilization; it’s playing with fire.

Think about it, they may have been monitoring us for a very long time. If today is the first time the trigger has been activated, it means that certain preset conditions have been met. I don’t think the farmers coming to a fattened sheep can be a good thing."

"Imagine what you would do if you learned that a child was holding a knife in their hand?"

As the person in charge of deep space exploration, Xiao Okada had spent a lot of time researching alien civilizations and often interacted with the philosophers and biologists kept at the base; his overall thinking tended to be extreme.

"Let’s think from the most basic, simplest perspective: what can the ’monitoring station’ on Mars know?

Clearly, it’s unlikely to know that a person named Xiao Okada is pontificating here, but it must know that humanity has developed the hydrogen bomb, and the message it conveyed definitely includes this point.

The hydrogen bomb is like a knife. Though it’s inconsequential compared to humanity’s advanced weaponry, the mere fact that someone is holding it represents a threat, and all civilizations must put their safety first, otherwise why signal at this time?

This is a civilization that has mastered communication technology using gravity waves, and it’s unknown how long ago they placed the ’monitoring station’ here. How advanced have they become now?"

"So, what am I supposed to do, just tuck my head into a non-existent turtle shell and wait to die?"

Perhaps due to his own extraordinary experiences, Xie Liaofu was quite dissatisfied with his pessimism:

"We are not ordinary humans to begin with, and this day was bound to come sooner or later. It’s just that it happened a year or two earlier.

On the contrary, we should send astronauts to land early and find out what exactly is there. That’s a real gravity wave communication antenna!"

Seeing the atmosphere between the two becoming somewhat tense, Ye Changsi interrupted them in time and returned to the main topic:

"How we respond is not the point. The focus should be on what the signal transmitted, whether the purpose of monitoring us is benign, and most importantly, how far away the civilization monitoring us is from us, and whether there are other alien civilizations in the universe."

That alien civilizations do exist is something absolutely confirmed by GW180509, so it is natural to assume that there’s more than one alien civilization.

Gravity waves are transmitted at the speed of light and will spread to every corner of the universe without any dead zones—essentially a broadcast on a universal scale.

According to human observation of nearby star systems, no traces of any civilization’s activities or communication signals have been detected within at least a hundred light-years.

GW180509 can be seen at first glance to be regular and has not been disguised at all. Even ’Departing Fire’ sends signals stealthily disguised as natural signals, so why is GW180509 so bold?

Could it be that it’s not afraid of exposing its existence because of the signal, hence using it so recklessly?

Moreover, from a communication standpoint, neutrino communication, which can be directed, is strong in penetration and dense in information, is more suited to interstellar communication methods than superluminal speeds.

Of course, regardless, the issue humans need to worry about the most is where the receiving end is located.

Since it’s transmitted at the speed of light, even if the signal travels beyond the Solar System, it would take 1 year, and to reach the nearest Centauri star system, it would take four years. For more hopeful planets, like Gliese 581, it’s at least 20 years, and beyond that, it’s hundreds to thousands of years.

The Orion Arm where the Solar System is located is very remote, and the places that may harbor extraterrestrial civilizations are just too far away.

If an extraterrestrial civilization prepared to destroy Earth, organizing an interstellar fleet at the speed of light upon receiving the signal, by the time they arrived, it might have been centuries, and humans might have had a technological explosion, able to hold their own; or at the very least, they could flee to the stars and plot revenge.

As for faster than light travel, that can be dismissed, a civilization that hasn’t even mastered instantaneous communication couldn’t possibly possess the technology for faster than light travel.

So if an extraterrestrial crisis won’t arrive for tens to hundreds of years, with the development speed of the base, we might even be able to turn the tables and whip the little green men.

Conversely, if the receiving end is not tens to hundreds of light-years away, and a massive alien fleet happens to be silently passing by a few light-years away, receiving the message and immediately heading this way.

Although this possibility is almost non-existent, now that aliens have appeared, what is there to absolutely not believe in?

How to regard aliens, setting a safety time period, will directly determine the base’s response strategy.

"At least 20 light-years, right?"

After listening to Ye Changsi’s description of the problem, Xie Liaofu thought for a moment and then responded,

"I’m not very familiar with extragalactic systems, but I’m confident there’s no extraterrestrial activity within at least 20 light-years. Otherwise, the super telescopes would have definitely spotted something.

Furthermore, they’ve chosen gravitational wave communication, which has the characteristics of minimal attenuation and broad dispersion; this suggests the receiver is still quite far away, otherwise there would be better methods.

Back and forth, at the very least, we have thirty years of peace. If there were any point so close that could interfere with the Solar System, there would be some trace, right?"

"That’s not necessarily true, who says they have to organize a massive fleet from far-flung homeworlds or military bases?"

Xiao Okada countered again:

"You probably haven’t read ’Three Body’. It’s a science fiction novel from the New Century, which includes a concept I think is worth learning: weakness is not the original sin of existence, arrogance is.

Maybe they only need to set up an antimatter cannon in some desolate place and shoot an antimatter bomb at us upon activation. It’s not just humans; even the Sun would be sacrificed for us.

As for things like interstellar fleets, perhaps real cosmic civilizations don’t need them at all."

Xiao Okada’s words all hinted that Xie Liaofu was an antiquated relic from the last century, but upon realizing Ye Changsi was also from the same era, he toned it down quite a bit.

After they finished speaking, a voice rang out:

"Perhaps there’s another breakthrough."

Yang Zhongkai appeared out of nowhere, he too had just gotten off a plane, his clothes were still haphazardly worn.

He’d been systematically researching extraterrestrial civilizations for half a year but soon hit a dead end, and any further work threatened to become wild fantasy.

GW180509 had a profound impact on him, but it was more excitement than anything else.

At the sound of his voice, everyone stopped to look at him.

"There’s another place, Titan. Titan must hold some value!

The known extraterrestrial relics within the Solar System are not just on Mars, but also there. What are the chances that two alien civilizations would visit the same solar system? Almost zero!

Even if there were, these two places must also be closely related. Mars alone might not reveal the answer, but examining two places could allow for mutual corroboration, not to mention we haven’t visited either.

Exploring them would take a few years at most, even in an emergency situation, surely we have that much time, right?"

He then turned his intense gaze back to Ye Changsi:

"President Ye, technically no one can replace you, but these issues require the minds of sociologists and philosophers."