Chapter 203, About Life
In the void of the solar system, there is a very tiny "ant" slowly crawling towards the outer reaches of the solar system. This "ant" is the "Ocean" spacecraft, although it is the largest one created by mankind. It is a spaceship, but let alone compared with the vast starry sky, even if it is placed in the entire solar system, saying that it is an ant is already exalting it.
The universe is so vast. Even in the solar system of asteroids, even the distance from the earth to Mars is only 0.52 astronomical units on average, which is nearly 80 million kilometers when converted into kilometers.
In such a vast area, even though the "Ocean" spacecraft has reached a speed of nearly 100 kilometers per second, it still takes nearly 10 days to fly from the Earth orbit to the Mars orbit. If acceleration and When slowing down, just traveling to Mars would take half a month.
So even though the speed of the spacecraft was very fast at this time, everyone on the spacecraft felt that the spacecraft seemed to be motionless. Especially the scenery outside the spacecraft was almost unchanged. There were stars in the dark void, even if they were in the same place. The eight major planets in the solar system are also invisible at all.
It turned out that the Earth could still be seen just a few days after setting off, but now, the Earth's figure has long disappeared into the void. Only an astronomical telescope can be used to see the Earth. It is still impossible to distinguish the Earth with the naked eye alone.
The rest area in the "Ocean" spacecraft is full of various green plants. It is a place that everyone likes to come to. At this time, Li Fu, Liu Shiying and Liu Yi were also the same. While drinking tea, While chatting, of course in space, because there is no gravity, drinking tea and chatting are different from those on the ground.
The three of them don't need to sit at all, and of course they don't need to sit down, because they are all light. As for the tea, it is a special utensil, a bit like a drinking kettle. You only need to press the button on it lightly, and the water in the teapot will be released. You can come out, hold a teapot like this in your hand, and take a sip from time to time.
Next to the three of them, Li Quanjiang waited respectfully. If anyone's teapot was out of water, he would immediately rush to help add water or change the tea.
"I originally thought that space travel would be quite interesting, but now it seems that it is also very boring. This spacecraft relies on inertia to fly and does not need to pay attention to anything. Now we have nothing to do every day and have no way to do research. It is really boring. "
Liu Yi looked at the unchanging scenery outside the window, took a sip of tea and said boredly.
"This is how cosmic travel is, but what we know about the universe now is too little. How vast and vast the universe is is really fascinating. There are too many unknowns waiting for us to go. Discover."
Liu Shiying looked at the dark void outside with fascination, as if he wanted to see the other side of the stars and explore the unknown worlds.
"The universe is too vast, and we humans have just stepped out of the earth. There is still a long, long way to go in the future."
Li Fu also nodded. From the seeds of super civilization, Li Fu has already understood the vastness and immensity of the universe. He also knows the vastness of the universe and is full of infinite yearning. However, human technology is still too primitive and backward. Now, we can’t even move freely within the solar system, so how can we talk about the universe and starry sky?
"Do you think there really is an alien civilization?"
Liu Yi seemed to have thought of something and asked seriously.
"The earth can support life, why can't other planets support life?"
Li Fu did not answer directly. This time Liu Yi followed him with the purpose of searching for extraterrestrial life and pursuing a question that has long been controversial among humans, whether there are aliens.
Many people have always believed that there are no aliens, because the birth of life on earth is a miracle in itself. There are too many factors that have given birth to the current earth and this cradle of life. Although in the stars in the universe There are endless stars and planets, but the probability of birth of life is really low.
Moreover, humans have never encountered any alien life, not even through dialogue with each other, so there are many people who insist that the earth is unique and humans are unique.
However, there are also many people who believe that the universe is too vast and the earth cannot be unique. There must be other alien life and alien civilizations. The reason why we have not yet contacted any alien civilization. , that’s because the universe is too vast and it’s really difficult to connect with each other.
Just like in ancient times, there were no advanced means of transportation. Asians, Americans, Australians, Africans, Europeans, etc. on the earth were too far apart from each other. They all thought that they were the center of the world. For others, The place is unclear, and I even thought it was a wilderness.
It is okay that Asia, Europe and Africa are connected by land. They are more or less connected with each other and can know each other's existence to some extent. However, the Australian continent and the American continent are separated by the ocean. Before the great voyages of discovery, these locations were not on the world map. There is even a blank page, and I have no idea that there is a vast continent and a prosperous civilized world here.
So although the Earth is very special, there are definitely countless civilizations and prosperous worlds waiting for human exploration and discovery in the vast universe.
The two views have been arguing endlessly, and each side insists on its own view. Of course, the view that the Earth is unique in the universe and that humans are the only civilization in the universe seems to be a frog in the well and arrogant.
Because although human history is very long and human civilization has a history of several thousand years, the real development of science and technology has only been less than a few hundred years. Humans' understanding of the universe is still very shallow and superficial, and the universe they see is very, very small.
Isn't it just like a frog sitting at the bottom of a well looking at the sky, thinking that the universe is just like this, only so big, sitting in a well and looking at the sky, what they know is just not even as good as the skin and fur.
Such a view is more likely to be out of worry and anxiety about the future, holding a more pessimistic attitude, because the Earth civilization is really very primitive now. If there are really countless civilizations in the universe, are they more powerful than the Earthlings, how will they treat the Earthlings, etc., there are too many, too many things worth thinking about.
"The universe is so vast, and we know so little, so little."
Liu Shiying also nodded. The more he knew about the universe, the more he was in awe of it. Anything that was taken into the universe seemed very small and ridiculous compared to the vast universe.
"Maybe. I hope we can make some discoveries this time. If we can find extraterrestrial life on other planets in the solar system, even if it is very simple and primitive life, I think it will be one of the most important discoveries of this century."
Liu Yi nodded undeniably. As a top scientist in the field of biological sciences, Liu Yi really wanted to know some information about the origin of life and extraterrestrial life, so this time he followed the "Ocean" spacecraft to conduct scientific research in the solar system.
"It's not that life on Earth is actually brought to Earth by alien meteorites from outer space. I think there will definitely be some discoveries."
Liu Shiying didn't know much about biotechnology, so he just said it casually.
"There have always been two views on the origin of life. One is the idealistic view, which believes that life and everything are created by the so-called God; the other is the materialistic view, which emerged with the continuous development of modern science and technology, and believes that life on Earth was accidentally produced by meteorites from outer space or chemical reactions on Earth itself."
"Let's not talk about the idealistic view. The microscopic view is deduced based on existing biological science and technology, especially Darwin's theory of evolution. With the emergence of genetic technology, almost all organisms can be traced back to the most original and simplest life if they are traced and explored to the source."
"So now scientists basically believe that life is a comprehensive reaction of chemistry, physics, etc., and different molecules interact and mix to produce primitive organic molecules with DNA. DNA has two characteristics: first, it can produce amino acids, and second, it can replicate itself. These two characteristics of DNA are also the basic characteristics of organic organisms such as bacteria. Bacteria are the simplest life forms in the world of life and the oldest fossils we can find at present."
Speaking of the origin of life, Liu Yi suddenly became energetic. As a top scientist in biology, he has been struggling to think about the very serious issue of the origin of life.
However, the history of the earth has been billions of years, and the history of life is also very long. What happened in the long years of billions of years can only be studied and inferred through some fossils in modern times, but it is very difficult to trace the origin.
Although life is also composed of various molecules, various things in the body are dead when taken out separately, but when they are combined together, they are life, which is very magical!
You can imagine that these substances in the human body are very common in nature, but after the combination, people, this magical life, were born.
…
The "Ocean" spacecraft flew quietly in the void, getting closer and closer to its first stop, Mars. In the field of vision, Mars slowly showed its mysterious face to the world.
PS: It is said that on February 14, 1178 AD, more than 900 years ago today, Wu Dalang was poisoned to death by Pan Jinlian. Haha, I wish you all a happy Valentine's Day!