Chapter 9 Chapter Nine New Interpretation of Ancient Maps

One Sunday morning, when Xu Zhenyu woke up, his mother had already gone out.His mother is a middle school teacher, and she goes to make up lessons for the students almost every Sunday.His father was a pilot and died in an accident.Enduring the great grief of losing a loved one, my mother devoted her whole body and mind to the cause of education.Ten years on, her passion for her work remains the same.All this made Xu Zhenyu love and respect his mother very much. He ate something casually, then returned to his room, sat in front of a table with many books, staring at a large photo of an ancient star map in a daze.After the trip to Xiakou, Huang Jingzhi announced the new clues they found on the bamboo slips in "Academic Research on Archeology".Maybe it's because this new clue is very convincing, maybe it's because people are eager to find Zhang Heng's former image, maybe it's because of Professor Huang's prestige in the academic world, in short, Professor Huang's entity theory has gained many new supporters.Despite this, the number of supporters of Guo Yiping's hypocrisy has not diminished.This may be because his argument also has its own set of truths.The two sides kept publishing articles in magazines and newspapers, and refused to give in to each other.It's true that the public says that the public is right, and the mother-in-law says that the mother-in-law is right, and there is no consensus.Recently, Guo Yiping proposed that since Lu Qian's tomb is next to the copper ball, why not conduct new excavations to determine the authenticity of the copper ball?Between these two theories, Xu Zhenyu prefers the entity theory.But neither Professor Huang's substantive theory nor the many supporters of the substantive theory have hindered him from thinking independently, because he is not the kind of person who blindly worships authority.He has never been willing to confine himself in the frontier of science reached by experts, scholars, and old-timers.Like them, he will use his hard work and creative thinking to break through the original frontier and push the scientific cause he devoted himself to to a new frontier.

He thought that if he could study the ancient star map thoroughly, he would definitely have a deeper understanding of the copper ball.In this way, it will definitely add a new glorious page to the history of our Chinese astronomy development.A strong desire to win glory for the country and the nation prompted him to make up his mind: make full use of his spare time and make sure to produce results.He first carefully analyzed Professor Huang's theory of entities, many of which are unique and can be used as the basis for his research.However, there are several problems that cannot be explained by the entity theory, such as the problem of the southern triangle constellation, the problem of the re-entry of the copper ball, the problem of the lack of Sirius, etc.Where to start?He identified the ancient star map as the research object, and selected the lack of Sirius as the research starting point.This may be one of his keys.

Since Professor Huang was able to identify Ursa Major and Canis Major without Sirius on the basis of Ren Sihong's identification of Orion, wouldn't he also be able to identify some other constellations on the basis of Professor Huang's identification? Xu Zhenyu has made up his mind and made up his mind.For several days in a row, he could hardly leave the picture, forgetting to eat and sleep, his handsome face was visibly thinner.Really hard work paid off, he finally achieved the intended goal, and recognized several constellations.However, almost every one of these newly recognized constellations lacks one or two stars, and most of the missing stars are some famous bright stars, such as Procyon 3, Hegu Er and so on.Therefore, this achievement not only did not solve the knot in his heart, but increased his troubles: Where did these bright stars missing on the star map go?

In order to study these stars not found in the ancient star map, he drew a table and filled in the brightness, mass, distance and their coordinates on the celestial sphere of these stars.After filling it out, when he browsed from top to bottom, he suddenly found a rule: the distances of these missing stars are all relatively close to us, most of which are more than ten light-years to tens of light-years. He couldn't be happier.This newly discovered law enlightened him, what laws do those stars that have been identified have?Like a cross-country runner who vaguely saw the finish line, he was energetic and rushed forward.He also filled in the recognized stars on the form one by one according to the previous format. "Oh, so it is!" He grabbed a pencil and quickly drew a regular table on a piece of paper:

Finding this important law brought him great joy, but it did not stop his active mind.Why are distant stars so accurate on ancient star maps?Why can't stars as close as Sirius be found?In order to solve the mystery of the ancient star map, he has been thinking hard for several days. At some point, his eyes moved from the photo of the star map to a chandelier in the room, staring at it in a daze, thinking... The door opened suddenly, revealing Ren Sihong's thin face through the crack.Seeing Xu Zhenyu staring at the chandelier in a daze, he couldn't help laughing: "Hey, that's interesting! What time is it now, and you're still sitting here in a daze!"

Xu Zhenyu was startled, and only then remembered that it was time to visit his house as a guest.He stood up and subconsciously glanced at the chandelier again.If you don't look at it, it's enough, and you will be enlightened when you look at Mao Sai.He was so happy that he hugged Ren Sihong's thin shoulders with both hands, and said to him: "I discovered the secret of the ancient star map!" "What secret?" Ren Sihong asked. "When I stood up just now, I saw that the relative position of the chandelier and the wall had changed, and suddenly thought, if I look at Sirius in another solar system, wouldn't its relative position in the starry sky also change!"

"You mean to say that the star map on the copper ball was seen in another solar system?" Ren Sihong was surprised. "Yes," Xu Zhenyu said sonorously, "I think that copper ball must have been made outside the solar system, and it was an information rocket sent to the earth from another civilized planet in the universe. These aliens discovered thousands of years ago. Trying to establish contact with us earthlings, the copper ball is the address they left—no, it should be said to be a celestial address. It is a pity that we earthlings did not have the ability to discover, understand, and answer at that time."

"Then, why are some stars on the ancient star map accurate, and some stars are far away?" Ren Sihong didn't understand it all at once. Xu Zhenyu thought for a while and said: "This problem can be illustrated with an example. For example, we are standing on Tiananmen Square. You are standing on the south side, and I am standing on the north side. There is only a distance of six or seven steps between the two of us. Let us each take a Set up a camera to take pictures of the far and near scenery in the four directions of east, west, southeast and north. When the photos are developed, you will definitely find that in the two corresponding photos we took respectively, the buildings that are far away from us, such as the The Anmen, the Great Hall of the People, the Monument to the People's Heroes, and the History Museum are almost identical. For those pedestrians who are far away from us, the situation is similar. Because the two of us are only six or seven steps away, this pair of pedestrians who are far away from us For pedestrians, it is a very small distance, and the photos naturally do not reflect much change. But for those pedestrians who are closer to us, their positions in the two corresponding photos of us will be very different. Big difference. It is particularly obvious that in the four photos I took, you will appear in front of the Monument to the People’s Heroes; and in the four photos you took, I will appear in front of the Tiananmen Rostrum. This happens to be Two opposite directions. When people study the difference between your group of photos and mine, they will definitely come to a conclusion: the distance between the two photographers is very close, about ten steps away." Ren Sihong nodded Nodding his head to express his understanding, Xu Zhenyu said again:

"The situation in the universe is the same. If you are on the earth in the solar system, take pictures of the stars in the sky, and then draw them into star maps for people on the earth; Take pictures of the stars and draw them into star maps of aliens. When people study the difference between these two star maps, they will definitely find that the stars that are far away from us have little difference in the two star maps, and the stars far away from us Nearer stars make a big difference. In particular, you won't have the sun on your map, and I won't have my star on my map."

"That's right." Ren Sihong said. "Now, this is the case with the ancient star map we have!" Xu Zhenyu said, "So I estimate that the planet that launched the copper ball is near the solar system." The copper ball research has made a great contribution!" Xu Zhenyu looked a little shy: "You can't say that. Without the research results of you and Professor Huang, I would not be able to analyze this far. Besides, if there is no Lu Qian, then we still don't know anything today." "Can we analyze which planet it was launched from?" Ren Sihong said thoughtfully.

Xu Zhenyu took a pencil, drew a celestial sphere on the paper, drew some arcs and straight lines, and tapped the pencil on the table from time to time.He turned around the paper a few times with exploring eyes, and said repeatedly: "Yes, yes!" Ren Sihong leaned over.Xu Zhenyu took out a modern printed star map, the stars on this star map are represented by black dots.He took another red pencil and sharpened the point with a knife.Then he said to Ren Sihong: "We moved the recognized stars on the ancient star map to the modern star map one by one with a red pencil. Of course, these stars represented by red dots should be as consistent as possible with the positions on the ancient star map. Then, we Connect the corresponding red and black dots, and you can tell where the copper ball came from." Ren Sihong was in high spirits at the moment and encouraged Xu Zhenyu to paint quickly.Xu Zhenyu took an English version of "Basic Astronomy" from the bookshelf, flipped through it, and then leaned on the table, constantly calculating and drawing. "Is Zhenyu at home?" A young woman about the same age as Ren Sihong stood outside the door.Her chubby face is slightly freckled, and she wears short athlete's hair on her head, and her plump body is quite flexible.Every move has the demeanor of a big sister. Xu Zhenyu looked up and saw that it was Bai Lizhen, Ren Sihong's lover, and immediately stood up and said, "Sister Bai, you are here too." She is Ren Sihong's classmate in college, from the Northeast.Like many Northeast women, she has a straightforward, generous, and hearty personality. Bai Lizhen looked at Xu Zhenyu and smiled, then glared at Ren Sihong: "Hey, I told you to take Xiao Xu home quickly, what time is it, you are still standing still here, and now even the day lily is completely cold." Xu Zhenyu said, "It's all my fault, we'll leave right away, it should work!" Bai Lizhen glanced around, only to see a large pile of books on the table, a large photo dotted around, a printed star map, red pencil, white paper, and a box of uneaten books on the small cabinet. The finished Xiaogan sesame candy.She couldn't help laughing: "This pair of nerds!"