Chapter 251 Diving Deep Into the Metal Ocean

The exploration spacecraft continued to descend, and then humans saw a series of magical scenes through the cameras and detection equipment on the exploration spacecraft.

First, the pressure sensor on the exploration spacecraft detected that the pressure on the spacecraft was getting higher and higher, from 0 atmospheres when it just entered the planet's cloud layer, it quickly increased to one atmosphere and two atmospheres.

In this area, humans saw from the optical equipment built into the spacecraft that there were thick clouds all around, and the rapid rotation of the planet turned these clouds into super storms. From the human perspective, it was like a piece of condensed cotton cloud hitting the spacecraft.

At this time, the outside temperature displayed by the temperature sensor was nearly minus 120 degrees.

The so-called cloud layer is not a real cloud, but a thick hydrogen that fills the entire spacecraft's perspective. Hydrogen is colorless and odorless, but here, it appears like clouds above a storm, visible to the naked eye.

The exploration spacecraft passed over this layer of thick hydrogen surface and continued to descend. The temperature sensor then continued to soar, and the pressure sensor also detected that the pressure was constantly increasing.

Gradually, the humans on the research ship saw that the surrounding scene gradually changed into another scene through the data sent back by the detection spacecraft.

Some ice crystals began to appear in the original thick hydrogen. These ice crystals mixed with the thick hydrogen cloud layer and continuously hit the outer armor of the detection spacecraft at a speed of hundreds of meters per second.

At this moment, the detection spacecraft seemed to be in a terrifying place. The mixture of hydrogen, ice crystals and hydrogen clouds that came from the pupa was like the legendary ice spell, constantly destroying the detection spacecraft.

Humans knew very well that this was because the hydrogen cloud layer rotated with the planet, so under the control of the detection spacecraft's intelligent program, the spacecraft also accelerated in the direction of the planet's rotation, so that the spacecraft itself could keep pace with the "cloud ice" storm layer as much as possible, and at the same time, continue to descend.

The ambient temperature continued to rise, the pressure continued to increase, and the concentration of the hydrogen cloud layer continued to rise.

At this moment, the hydrogen cloud layer can no longer be regarded as an ordinary cloud layer, but presents a cloud-like tangible state. If a person stands on these clouds, it is estimated that he can really walk on the clouds like the gods in the TV.

Such a thick hydrogen layer naturally has a huge resistance, so the exploration spacecraft, under the control of the intelligent program, began to reduce the output power of the engine to ensure that the spacecraft can continue to descend under the action of gravity, rather than being embedded in the hydrogen cloud and being rotated by it.

The exploration spacecraft continued to descend, and gradually, humans discovered that the surrounding hydrogen cloud was no longer like a hydrogen cloud, but had become a sticky fluid.

Humans know that the exploration spacecraft is crossing from the hydrogen cloud area to the liquid hydrogen area. When entering the liquid hydrogen area, humans saw from various detection sensors that the exploration spacecraft was suffering from various harsh factors.

First, the temperature of the outer shell of the exploration spacecraft soared to tens of thousands of degrees Celsius, but fortunately, the outer shell of the exploration spacecraft was made of No. 2 alloy material, which can withstand high temperatures of up to 280 million degrees Celsius.

The exploration spacecraft was not destroyed due to high temperature and high pressure, but at this time, humans found that the exploration spacecraft faced another problem, that is, its engine had difficulty running and was almost not descending.

After entering the high-temperature and high-pressure liquid hydrogen environment, the exploration spacecraft is like a submarine. The strong external pressure has made it difficult for the external nozzle of the exploration spacecraft engine to continue to spray tail flames, and at the same time, it also compresses the internal pressure of the engine to rise sharply.

Human material technology is very powerful. The reaction chamber of the fusion engine will not be crushed by such pressure, but the drastic change in the pressure environment has destroyed the environment of the fusion engine. Therefore, if it continues to descend, the fusion engine of the exploration spacecraft will be completely damaged.

In other words, the exploration spacecraft at this time is no different from a submarine. The nuclear fusion engine cannot be used, and there is no power to descend.

As the saying goes, going up to the sky and into the earth is countless times more difficult than going into the earth. This was the case in the Earth era, and it is also the case for humans today.

If it is a normal situation, there will be no way to explore this time.

However, since it is specially prepared for exploring the interior of a gaseous planet, the human exploration spacecraft will naturally not be that simple.

Human scientists have already considered the high-temperature and high-pressure liquid hydrogen environment, so the next moment, the intelligent system immediately made a judgment.

First, all the nuclear fusion engine components were thrown out directly, just like the booster separation of a rocket. Then, the secondary power system was started, the bow was turned, and the propeller was driven by this power system to continue to dive.

With the propeller's push, the exploration spacecraft can continue to sail in liquid hydrogen, diving deeper and deeper. After crossing thousands of kilometers of liquid hydrogen layer, the exploration spacecraft entered a new environment.

Ultra-high temperature and ultra-high pressure.

Under the strong gravitational force of the gas planet, the pressure here has reached nearly two million standard atmospheres. The strong pressure has caused a lot of deformation of the outer shell of the exploration spacecraft. You should know that in the Earth era, the deepest seabed reached by human creations is only one thousand standard atmospheres.

Here, because of the high temperature and high pressure, hydrogen atoms have lost their binding to the electrons outside the nucleus, and those electrons bound in the atoms have now become free electrons.

In chemistry class, we all know that the characteristic of easily losing electrons is usually possessed by metal elements, but now this situation has occurred in hydrogen elements.

Therefore, the hydrogen here is no longer normal liquid hydrogen, but has become metallic hydrogen, liquid metallic hydrogen.

The powerful material technology enables the detector to continue diving. Not long after, scientists discovered through various sensors that the ambient temperature at this moment has exceeded 17,000 degrees Celsius, and the pressure has reached four million atmospheres.

At this time, the density difference between the detection spacecraft and the environment makes it extremely difficult to continue diving. Its propeller movement becomes extremely difficult, just like a steel shovel stirring in viscous cement.

After collecting a lot of data here, scientists drove the detector down again, and it was still a vast and deep world of metallic hydrogen, which was really bottomless.

"It can't go down anymore. If it continues to dive, even if the detection spacecraft can withstand high temperatures and high pressures, it will be paralyzed due to damage to the internal drive gears of the engine." A scientist in charge of this project looked at the various data sent back by the detector and couldn't help but speak.

What he said made sense. At this time, the optical lens on the detection spacecraft had already failed, and other electromagnetic wave detectors were even more so. Some were only neutrino detection systems built into the detection spacecraft.

The various power gears are not made of No. 2 alloy material like the exploration spacecraft, so according to various data, if they continue to dive, they will really lose contact.

"It's okay. The neutrino detector detects the center of mass of the gas planet and then continues to dive. This detector is a one-time mission. It is difficult to complete it in one go. Moreover, one of the tasks is to test how deep we can reach now. As long as we don't get nothing, it won't be considered a failure." Another responsible scientist shook his head.

Based on the theory, they speculated that if they could cross this thickest layer of metallic hydrogen, they could reach the real core of the gas planet.