mynovelweb Chapter 38: Stellar Black Holes
Chapter 38: Stellar Black Holes
A deeper understanding of the universe has fueled the scientists at the Earth Federation Academy of Sciences' urgent pursuit of directional hypersonic travel technology, propelling their research on warp drive to a new level. Earth Federation scientists believe that hypersonic warp drive requires the use of large wormholes or black holes. Black holes are celestial bodies in space with infinite density and infinitesimal volume. Their gravity is so strong that once light enters their "event horizon," it cannot escape; black holes only allow entry and never exit. In contrast, white holes only emit and do not enter. They cannot absorb any matter or radiation from their surroundings; they are celestial bodies that emit but do not absorb. Scientists believe that white holes originate from the inhomogeneities of the Big Bang, acting as a kind of "delayed nucleus" of the Big Bang. Space is filled with many black holes, white holes, and wormholes, with wormholes connecting many black holes and white holes. Black holes and white holes are like the two ends of a "pipeline," and wormholes are the "pipelines" connecting them. Matter entering a black hole will eventually exit through a wormhole and emerge from a white hole. Because of the immense gravity of black holes, which can warp spacetime, wormholes, acting as "pipelines," are also curved. The larger the mass of the black hole, the larger the diameter and length of the wormhole. The interface between a wormhole and a black hole or white hole is a connection between a spatial conduit and closed spatial regions at both ends. At the interface, the curvature of space is not infinite, allowing safe passage through the wormhole without being destroyed by the immense gravity, thus enabling curvature supersonic travel. If a celestial body has the density of a nuclear density (equivalent to the density of a neutron star, approximately 15 billion tons per cubic centimeter), and its total mass is about three times the mass of the Sun, this celestial body will be compressed to a size smaller than its Schwarzschild radius, forming a "stellar black hole."
Before being detonated by humans, the Sun was only considered a medium-mass star in the universe. Stars of this mass can only eventually become white dwarfs. There are many massive stars in the universe, which can become neutron stars or even black holes in their later years. Examples of massive stars include VY (Canis Majoris), Betelgeuse (Oriona a), Betelgeuse (Orionbeta a), Pollux (Geminibebeta a), Arcturus (Boötes a), Aldebaran (Taurus a), and Antares (Scorpius a).
Humanity once used four large portals to perform a skinning operation on Sirius's companion star (in Galactic Era 62), discovering an intelligent energy entity within its core. They subsequently removed the four portals. However, one portal was left near Sirius's primary star, serving as a memorial to the first time humanity had used a portal to transport Zhou Yuan and Wei Shan.
Sirius originally had a mass approximately 2.6 times that of the Sun before its explosion. After absorbing matter and energy from its companion star, it has reached a mass approximately 3.5 times that of the Sun before its explosion.
Sirius's companion star has now disappeared, leaving Sirius alone in the sky, and its fate seems to be even more tragic.
Because Earth's scientists have decided to conduct a warp drive study of Sirius using an artificial "stellar black hole."
In the year 338 of the Galactic Era, a continental superhero warship, the Hercules, was driven autonomously by a super artificial intelligence. It traveled through a portal to the vicinity of Sirius. The warship then flew away from Sirius and set up a large portal two light-years away from Sirius. It then flew back to Sirius and stopped hundreds of millions of kilometers away from Sirius, preparing to create an artificial "stellar black hole".
Sirius shone brightly in its own domain as always. Earth's various monitoring devices were activated.
The Hercules warship suddenly emitted a beam of super-powerful intelligent energy capable of destroying a star, directly targeting Sirius. Within a minute, it triggered a violent reaction within Sirius, causing a dramatic gravitational collapse similar to when humanity detonated the sun. Sirius exploded, violently ejecting vast amounts of energy and matter in all directions. The initial burst, lasting less than 0.05 seconds, consisted of ultra-short wavelength electromagnetic waves—the most powerful rays in the universe—a short burst of gamma rays that erupted at Sirius's poles, followed by a 130-second burst of X-rays. The optical and radio afterglow of Sirius's explosion lasted for nearly two months.
The Sirius "stellar black hole," easily created by Earth's humans, was formed. When Sirius exploded, the nearby Hercules warship had already accelerated to near the speed of light in this space and escaped, thus avoiding being captured by the Sirius "black hole" and being torn apart by its powerful gravity.
From the perspective of the three Earth planets and Gesang planet, in the direction of Sirius, it was as if a giant sun had suddenly appeared in the sky, its intense light sweeping across the entire heavens. However, this phenomenon did not last long, only about four or five minutes. Fortunately, the Gesang people received advance notice from Earthlings to detonate Sirius; otherwise, who knows what chaotic situation would have ensued. The Gesang people were even more envious of Earthlings' technology, which further fueled their thirst for knowledge and the pursuit of truth.
Through a large portal originally located two light-years away from Sirius, Earth's Alpha Fleet, Beta Fleet, and various probe ships arrived near Sirius's relatively small black hole. Calculations show that the visible Schwarzschild radius of Sirius's black hole is over 650 meters.
A Hercules-class warship and a Black Hole Shuttle 1 probe slowly approached the region of the black hole detected by the gravitational field. When the Hercules detected the immense gravity, it simultaneously fired an ultra-high-energy beam towards the center of the black hole. The beam struck the black hole's core directly, and the immense energy opened a channel in the dense matter at the black hole's center. Within the visible light range, this appeared like a pillar of light in the dark night sky, disappearing on the other side of the black hole. After the Hercules deactivated its beam, the Black Hole Shuttle 1 probe, which had already activated its anti-gravity field, plunged into the black hole's central channel, which would take nearly three hours to close. It then conducted a long-distance interspatial journey within the wormhole, continuously emitting ultra-powerful pulse information waves and transmitting quantum communication signals over long distances.
Four minutes later, humanity received information and images from the Black Hole Traveller 1 probe's long-range telescope. Scientists quickly used this information and images to pinpoint the probe's location. With the assistance of a super artificial intelligence computer, and by combining this data with centuries of updated star charts and comparing them with observations from earlier Earth eras, they finally confirmed that Black Hole Traveller 1 was located near the star Capella (the main star in the constellation Auriga), 182 light-years from the new Earth!
Humanity on Earth has added another Hercules warship to its attack on the black hole. After the "Black Hole Shuttle 2" probe entered the wormhole and was ejected, its location is near Aldebaran (Taurus), 265 light-years from the new Earth.
Humanity conducted nearly 3200 repeated experiments, continuously increasing (decreasing) the number of Hercules warships and the output power of their ultra-high intelligent energy beams, opening a wormhole passage at the center of Sirius's black hole, and probing the spacecraft's arrival at different locations. Finally, by combining the characteristic stellar locations and orientations reached during these 3200+ visits with parameters such as the intelligent energy beam output power, the matter density and gravity of Sirius's black hole, and through supercomputer simulations and deductions, Earth's scientists compiled a relatively large-scale spatial curvature distribution map, understanding the complex relationships between the intelligent energy beam output power and black hole mass, black hole gravity, spatial curvature, and travel distance. In short, humanity can accurately predict the orientation, location, and approximate distance of warships or spacecraft entering the wormhole by using the powerful intelligent energy beams of the super warships through Sirius's black hole.
Because Sirius itself is not very massive, the stellar black hole it forms is also not very massive. Thus, the distance that can be traversed through the Sirius black hole wormhole is still limited. Even if humanity on Earth increases the output power of its ultra-intelligent energy beams, the farthest distance can only reach 6800 light-years (calculated at the speed of light c0).
Regardless, humanity has taken a crucial step towards directional supersonic travel. In long-distance interstellar travel, to achieve this, massive stars can first be transformed into "stellar black holes," and then travel through wormholes to reach even greater distances. The Milky Way galaxy has a diameter of 3.38 million light-years (calculated at the speed of light c0), and the new Earth is approximately 7770 million light-years from the galactic center (calculated at the speed of light c0). Humanity would need to traverse 11430 wormholes, similar to the Sirius black hole, meaning at least 11430 stars, roughly three times the size of the Sun, would need to be destroyed along the way to create stellar black holes. Of course, large natural black holes could be utilized; if the output power of a highly intelligent energy source's beam is sufficiently high, even more distant locations could be reached.
Through numerous experiments with Sirius's black hole, Earth's naval arsenal has been upgraded, resulting in the creation of black hole bombs and electromagnetic black holes. Black hole bombs are far more powerful and devastating than previous gravitational bombs, and Earth has achieved miniaturization of them. Electromagnetic black holes utilize the principle of light distortion caused by a black hole's gravitational field. Using metamaterials that undergo gradual refraction, they absorb 100% of electromagnetic waves of any direction and wavelength. Electromagnetic black holes can enable warships to become invisible and can also provide protection against extremely powerful radiation, such as gamma rays and X-rays.
Of course, humanity hasn't forgotten the gamma fleet that set off 100 years ago for the birthplace of the "Metal Civilization," the Orion Nebula M42. The Earth Federation fleet transmitted stellar black hole creation technology, black hole bomb technology, and electromagnetic bomb technology to the gamma fleet via encrypted long-distance communication. This allowed the gamma fleet the freedom to choose whether to navigate normally or to perform warp drive long-distance travel by creating stellar black holes or natural black holes. The requirement for the gamma fleet was that, whenever it created a stellar black hole, it must record the experimental and navigational data, such as black hole mass and spatial curvature. Furthermore, it was required to establish a portal near each black hole to facilitate subsequent research by Earth's scientists and long-distance travel by subsequent fleets.
Humanity's current approach is to continuously collect data on natural and man-made black holes, build a massive black hole database, and create a map of the entire Milky Way galaxy.
The Earth Federation fleet retrieved the logbooks of the "Metal Civilization" warships and decided to first make contact with some human civilizations.
Commander-in-Chief Thomas decided to dispatch a long-range fleet, a large fleet consisting of warships, shipbuilding vessels, transport ships, and additional personnel to supplement and expand the Alpha Fleet. This Alpha Fleet was quite large; its armed forces and organizational structure were a microcosm of New Earth. Zhou Yuan, Wei Shan, and others were awakened again from their deep-freezing "hibernation." According to the Replicated Life Form Amendment Act, the consciousness of all humans in the Alpha Fleet was downloaded and stored.
This time, the Alpha Fleet's target is Kepler-186 (Cygnus), 1880 light-years from the new Earth. This star is similar in size to the Sun and has five planets. The outermost planet, being farther from the star, is roughly the distance between Mars and the Sun, and is about 1.2 times the size of Earth. The civilization on this planet is a human civilization; the "metal civilization" has only been mentioned briefly. Over 460 years ago, its technological level was equivalent to around 1920 AD on Earth.
The logbook of the "Metal Civilization" warship refers to this civilization as the "Ama Civilization".