Chapter 51: Sky Survey
In orbit around Ceres, inside a small space laboratory approximately 50 meters long, a team of Clones was carefully operating equipment in the zero-gravity environment.
Silicon dioxide, already highly purified on the surface of Ceres, was being melted down again here for further refinement.
At the same time, special additives such as certain inorganic salts and alkaline oxides were mixed in.
After all the processes were complete, this large slab of glass began to "grow" in the zero-gravity space.
Without the interference of gravity and in a high vacuum, it could "grow" to be extremely flat and smooth, without the slightest curve, and could become very, very large.
This meant it would possess superior optical properties.
Once the initial processing was finished, more detailed procedures followed, such as grinding and coating.
After more than ten busy days, Li Qingsong finally finished the primary mirror for the first space telescope.
Wasting no time, Li Qingsong immediately took it out and installed it, along with several secondary mirrors, into the pre-fabricated telescope tube.
And just like that, a space telescope operating in orbit around Ceres was complete.
Disregarding the technological level of its other components, the quality of the mirror alone had reached the pinnacle of the Human World’s nation-state era, roughly on par with the renowned James Webb Space Telescope.
Of course, this didn’t mean Li Qingsong’s current technological capabilities had reached that level.
The reason for this success was the extremely convenient access to space from Ceres.
Here, Li Qingsong could manufacture and install the mirror directly in space. It was unlike the process on Earth, which required manufacturing it on the ground, cutting it into pieces due to limited rocket capacity, and then reassembling it in orbit—an incredibly troublesome procedure.
Now, this first space telescope in Li Qingsong’s possession aimed its lens in the direction of Earth.
Light from Earth would be collected by this massive, six-meter-diameter mirror, allowing Li Qingsong to analyze it for data about the planet.
After a period of continuous observation, Li Qingsong reviewed the data.
The telescope’s performance was indeed formidable, and it had collected a great deal of information about Earth.
He could even derive clear data on the composition of Earth’s atmosphere from this observation.
But...
It was still too crude.
He still couldn’t get a truly clear view of Earth.
There was nothing to be done. Earth was simply too far away, over 15 billion kilometers distant.
Obtaining more detailed information about Earth, let alone figuring out exactly what had happened there, was impossible with his current level of observation technology.
’I’ll revisit this when my technology is more advanced.’
Resigned, Li Qingsong had no choice but to temporarily give up on observing Earth and turn his attention to another matter.
To search the interstellar space around Ceres and find the enemy hiding in the shadows!
And so, guided by an automated program, the first telescope Li Qingsong had built began scanning the entire celestial sphere, collecting all information from the Cosmos in an attempt to find any anomalies.
This was a complex and immense task. With just one telescope, it would likely take several years to complete.
But that was no problem. After the first telescope, Li Qingsong quickly manufactured a dozen more of the same specifications. He arranged them all in a specific geometric formation in orbit around Ceres, assigned each a region of the sky, and had them scan the celestial sphere simultaneously.
While waiting for the survey data, Li Qingsong didn’t neglect other areas.
In the space laboratory and the research base on the surface of Ceres, a total of 300,000 research Clones continued to study new technologies without a moment’s rest, doing their utmost to advance their technical expertise.
Every base and every factory continued to operate at full capacity, producing large quantities of war materials while also validating the currently used technologies, providing a basis for future optimization and upgrades.
Time passed quietly.
During this time, the dozen or so survey telescopes observed a massive amount of data.
Li Qingsong even witnessed what appeared to be a Supernova explosion outside the Milky Way Galaxy, as well as numerous nebulae, star systems, and massive stellar bodies.
Undoubtedly, this data was all very valuable. While it couldn’t improve his technology or theoretical foundation in the short term, it would powerfully broaden his horizons in the long run, laying the groundwork for future development of fundamental theories.
People on Earth would have launched numerous large telescopes and detectors specifically to observe such events.
But right now, Li Qingsong couldn’t be bothered with any of that.
He remained focused on production, all while searching for traces of the enemy.
Finally, an anomalous signal caught Li Qingsong’s attention.
Space Telescope No. 3, during its routine sky survey, observed a faint point of light. Further observation indicated that it was a dwarf planet, similar to Ceres.
A dwarf planet?
Dwarf planets have low mass, small volume, and low luminosity. ’But if that’s the case, the fact that I was able to observe it can only mean one thing: it’s not far away.’
’Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to see it at all.’
At that moment, five of the dozen-plus space telescopes were reassigned and aimed at the object.
Through precise measurements, Li Qingsong determined that it was only a little over 40 million kilometers away from him.
’Another dwarf planet just 40 million kilometers from Ceres? I had no idea.’
It wasn’t just Li Qingsong who didn’t know; even the past Human Civilization had been unaware of it.
Whether a dwarf planet could be discovered by humanity involved a certain degree of randomness and luck. After all, they were too small and too dim.
Not having discovered this particular dwarf planet before was, therefore, quite normal.
The existence of numerous dwarf planets at the edge of the Solar System was also normal.
According to predictions, there could be tens of thousands of dwarf planets located between the Solar System’s Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud. The number of asteroids and comets was even more inestimable.
But the one thing that wasn’t normal was that Li Qingsong had detected some gas around this dwarf planet.
This gas caused slight alterations in the color and wavelength of the sunlight passing through it. It was these very alterations that indicated the gas’s presence.
But... how could a dwarf planet possibly have gas around it?
A dwarf planet’s gravity is too weak to hold onto free-floating gas. It would all be stripped away completely by interstellar radiation.
If that was the case, then only one possibility remained.
On this dwarf planet, there had to be some kind of gas source, constantly replenishing what was being lost.