Boundary Convention

The vast Milky Way is gorgeous and bright.

Why is the universe always black? Men sometimes ask themselves such stupid questions.

He clearly knew the answer to the question, but he still felt puzzled. Obviously there are so many stars and so many stars shining on this silent black curtain, why is it still pitch black.

For this man, the answer was obvious: Compared with the vast universe, countless stars are scattered, but light travels in a straight line, and an observer must be on its path to see it, or collide with it. A slight offset to the star increases the chance of being seen, and the infinitely expanding universe makes the chance of the observer to capture it very small, so the light can only continue to travel alone.

Therefore, the universe is always dark. For people who work like men, this is basic common sense, and it is not even worth thinking about.

So men don't question why the universe is black, but why the universe 'must' be black.

From the earth, people can see the change of the sun and the moon and the falling of stars with the naked eye. With the help of telescopes, people can see the superb scenery hidden by the thick pollutants and suspended particles in the air. With the use of astronomical domes, people can see things that have never been recognized and imagined, and have nothing to do with human beings. In countless light-years, countless stars move, die, nebulae are filled, and the twin stars never leave. As men know, the stars are not alone, they are even active.

But why, the universe is so silent.

It's like trying to hide something deliberately so that humans can't see it.

The universe hides all the best and most beautiful things in the edge of its infinite expansion, where it is so dark and deep that it cannot be touched. Yes, humans are afraid of the dark, this is a fear engraved in the genes.

Just as an ancient said: "The oldest and strongest emotion of human beings is fear; and the oldest and strongest fear is the fear of the unknown." Therefore, human beings are afraid of the universe and the unknown. But the more fearful, the more curious human beings become, just like the more people are told what they cannot do, the more people want to try, so human beings have been exploring the universe, trying to know the secrets in the dark.

Turning the instruments of the observatory, the man couldn't help but moved the telescope another thirty degrees along the Y axis.

"Hey, what are you doing, you made a mistake, that's not what we want to observe, why are you deserting again!"

Ignoring the voice from behind, the man pointed the camera at the place that haunted him.

There is the Phoenix constellation in the south of the Yuga constellation, north of the Rhododendron constellation, between the Tianhe constellation and the Pojiang constellation. It is named for its appearance like a phoenix reborn from the ashes. The man observed a spiral galaxy named NGC 328.

If the universe is a canvas, the man can undoubtedly be sure that this is the finishing touch on the picture. He likes beautiful things, but this is not the reason why men pay attention to this galaxy.

Just half a year ago, this galaxy began to be eroded by a golden 'fog'. It was said to be fog, but this was actually just a man's metaphor. From the appearance point of view, it was no different from ordinary nebulae. This 'fog' first sprouted from the inside of the galaxy, and then gradually spread out from the center of the galaxy. Until last month, this weird 'fog' had completely enveloped NGC328, as if it was wrapped in a continuously growing jelly , the entire galaxy gradually turned into a translucent 'egg'. Through this layer of 'fog', the entire spiral galaxy appears hazy, but exudes a unique beauty that is hard to fathom, just like the layers of waves that bloom when jade is penetrated by strong light. Man is obsessed with this sight, even though what he sees is billions of years ago.

But there is an instinctive disgust towards this 'fog' man. As we all know, the evolution of the universe is slow, and for creatures like human beings with only a hundred years of life, this evolution is almost impossible to detect with the naked eye. Nebulae are formed because stars are undergoing changes. For example, when a star evolves into a K-type giant, the heat inside it will radiate to the surroundings, thus creating nebulae. Due to the different chemical substances and free elements contained in the nebula, its color also varies.

The change of a star takes at least as long as the sands of the Ganges River, which is longer than all the time it takes for the creatures on the earth to go from the sea to the shore to drink blood and fluff their hair, and to the towering buildings now. This is not a change that can be observed by the existence of "human being". That's why the man only calls the Phoenix galaxy that envelops it a 'fog', not a nebula.

The man slightly increased the magnification of the telescope a little bit.

At the tail of the phoenix, there is an inconspicuous light spot, which is a comet, whose volume and mass are beyond people's imagination. Otherwise, it would be impossible for a man to observe it from such a great distance. The man had been watching the comet for a long time, as long as he had been watching 328.

The speed of this comet is very fast. After all, its volume and mass are so large, which is also reasonable. In the past three months, the comet has moved 1 millimeter across astrophotographs, an astonishing speed considering the scale of the observations. The man stared at the comet intently, frowning.

"Old Chen, show me the astronomical photos from before."

He said while staring at the still spot of light in the lens. But he stretched out his hand for a long time, and what he grasped was only air, and no one handed him the photo for him.

He could only reluctantly remove his eyeballs from the end of the binoculars, turned the stool around with some doubts, and looked at the only man behind him.

"Hey, Old Chen, I said your ears are getting worse and worse."

The man surnamed Chen sighed, while playing with his mobile phone, he still sat motionless on the chair.

"Come on, Lao Mo, I didn't work overtime with you to watch you do these moths. You always look at other things halfway through this way. How can we do research?"

"I'm researching,"

Lao Mo smacked his lips.

"If you just want to find undiscovered stars, then give a monkey a telescope, monkeys can do it, of course we want to observe more unusual things"

"Then have you observed it?"

Old Chen asked impatiently.

"If we can't find any undiscovered stars and show the results to the board of directors at the year-end summary meeting, Herman will have to talk about it again. The astronomy department may be withdrawn, and we will all have to lose our jobs."

"Don't worry, of course there is."

"have what?"

"You bring me the previous photos first."

"What do you say first?"

"You take it first."

"You speak first."

"You take it first."

"You first……"

This back and forth, within three rounds, Lao Chen got stuck. This was expected by Lao Mo, he and Lao Chen have been partners for many years, and Lao Mo knows Lao Chen's temperament clearly. So in the end, Lao Chen stood up disheveledly, walked to the messy desk, picked up the thick stack of photos and walked over, which was exactly as he expected.

Taking the heavy photo from Lao Chen, Lao Mo smiled at Lao Chen.

"Thank you!"

"I really can't do anything about you"

Lao Chen shook his head and sat back in his seat. At the same time, Lao Mo stuffed his eyes into the end of the telescope again. Flip through the photos, look at the telescope, and so on.

"Don't you like astronomy?"

"If you don't like it, how can you work in this field?"

"Yes, if you want to talk about the beauty born from the marriage of science and art, nothing can compare to astronomy except architecture."

"Old Mo, you already have a daughter, and you have to look forward to some things."

As Lao Chen spoke, he paused, as if he was considering whether he should say the next thing, and after a while, he still opened his mouth.

"Gossip, the council's funding for our department will be halved next year, bastard Herman..."

"Chen Yang!"

Lao Mo said while flipping through the photos in his hand, before he could close his mouth, the words stopped abruptly in his throat. He opened his mouth for a while and didn't move. After a while, he stretched out his hand and signaled Old Chen to come to him. Old Chen walked up to him suspiciously, only to see him pointing at the light spot on the photo.

Squeaky, I don't know what I'm talking about

"Look at this! Old Chen!"

"What's wrong with this?" Old Chen was used to this.

Lao Chen took the photo in Lao Mo's hand, looked at it for a moment, and showed a disappointed expression.

"It's just a comet, and the board doesn't think it's that good."

"No, I didn't mean that."

Saying this, Lao Mo snatched the photos from Lao Chen's hand, lay down on the ground excitedly, and spread out a thick stack of photos in a row. Lao Chen was not surprised by this move. Lao Mo is such a person. He has been like this since he was in college. He is as excited as a child when he finds out a little bit, although most of the time he is just "happy for nothing".

And this time, it should be about the same.

Old Chen lowered his head and looked through the row of photos, but he didn't find anything special about them. Lao Mo raised his head and waited expectantly for Lao Chen to say something, but in the end he only waited for Lao Chen to shake his head.

"Comrade Mo Hesheng, why don't we go to the ophthalmology department, if not, we can go to the psychiatrist."

"Comrade Chen Yang, please don't fucking fart, take a closer look!"

As he spoke, Lao Mo picked up the two extreme photos and placed them in front of Lao Chen. Lao Chen still couldn't see any abnormalities in it, but the position of the comet moved a little bit, slightly away from the marked galaxy - NGC328. As long as astronomical photos are viewed at a fixed angle and magnification, it is easy to see the changes in the operation of the stars. But such a small change is no big deal.

Seeing that Lao Chen was still confused, Lao Mo simply stuffed the two photos into Lao Chen's hands, and picked up the middle photo from the ground.

"Look carefully, Old Chen, I haven't changed the order of these photos."

After hearing this, Lao Chen seemed to understand something, but it seemed unreasonable. He took the photo and looked at the head and tail for a while, showing an expression of disbelief. Before he could ask any questions, Lao Mo had already hugged him, jumping up and down excitedly.

"This is a big discovery!"

"But... what's going on here?"

Lao Chen was a little dizzy from being shaken by Lao Mo, but he still picked up the three photos and looked at them again.

The first, is a picture of a comet approaching a galaxy.

The second is a photo of the comet exposed to the "fog".

In the third picture, the comet is already moving away from the galaxy.

Although the distance gap is extremely small, it is indeed changing in this order.

"It's ridiculous."

Old Chen shook his head.

"How could something push a fast-moving comet in the opposite direction?"

"I think it's the 'fog'."