Klein passed through the Mir Celebration Square and took the elevator to reach the core decision-making center of the Mir.

The moving door opens and the moving door closes.

There were five people sitting around the round table in front of Klein.

These five people are Stanley, the captain of the Mir, and Dawson, the all-round mentor of the voyage plan; biologist Dr. Suzumiya, who is a beloved earthist; engineer supervisor Frankenstein, and deputy captain Perry

ink.

"How long has it been since you guys got together? Tell me, whose birthday is it?" Klein pretended to be relaxed and walked to an empty seat reserved for him.

"I'm afraid it's not as fun as Professor Klein thought. We have encountered some troubles."

Engineer Frankenstein spoke first.

Klein crossed his legs and assumed a leisurely sitting posture, and said with a smile: "This is Mir, how could we encounter any trouble? There are currently more than 8,000 transport ships in space, and 35 giant spaceships the size of Mir.

, there was no problem with any ship, we successfully conquered space, Dr. Frankenstein, are you kidding me?"

Suzumiya smiled, her long black hair tied behind her head, which made her features petite and beautiful. "The optimism of the new humans is really enviable. Professor Klein seems to be the most optimistic among them."

"The doctor laughed. I have been away from the round table decision-making group for many years. I focus on teaching and training new people. By the way, I am responsible for cultivating candidate elites for Professor Dawson's [Voyage Plan]. I have kept a low profile for a long time and am relatively slow to everything."

Some, if there is any danger, please don't let me think of a solution."

Klein's nonsense actually made the tense atmosphere at the round table relax a little.

Captain Stanley took a sip of water and pursed his lips. Stanley, who had gray hair on his temples, was far from as old as he looked. Klein knew that he was deliberately making himself older to make him look more authoritative. This

One thing he did do.

"Even a spacecraft of the size of Mir may still encounter problems. There is a shipwreck on Earth that no one expected, as you all know."

Dawson: "You mean the Titanic?"

Stanley: "That's right, in 1912 on Earth, this 'world's largest ocean liner' sank. No spaceship is safe from danger. I think Professor Klein knows this as well as everyone else."

Klein spread his hands and stopped talking.

The captain continued in his unhurried tone: "In fact, the danger is not our Mir. The reason why I invite you all to gather here today is because our home planet is your second home.

In danger."

"You mean Mars?" Suzumiya's voice trembled slightly.

Stanley nodded at her. At this time, he had not realized that the problem would develop to the extent that it would become uncontrollable.

"Old man, tell me quickly what happened. Nothing on Mars is a trivial matter." Klein suddenly became serious.

"Don't worry yet. According to reports from the Lingxiao outpost, scientists believe that decay is occurring around Mars, and they are trying to control this decay to continue to accelerate. The good news is that there are currently no obvious signs of acceleration. The bad news is..."

Before Stanley could finish speaking, Perimer, who had remained silent, said: "The bad news must be that the decay range is getting wider."

As soon as these words came out, the room was as silent as the deep sky.

"Decay, doesn't it happen every day?" Klein broke the silence.

Suzumiya continued: "If it were that simple, we wouldn't be sitting here."

"Stop beating around the bush. Is what the captain is talking about vacuum decay occurring near Mars?"

Frankenstein looked at Stanley, his eyes as cold as stone.

Stanley rubbed his temples, "It is indeed what we least want to see - vacuum decay."

"Haha, we tried our best to rush out of the solar system, the Oort Cloud, and the Milky Way, but in the end, each of our home planets suffered massive destruction in turn?" Klein cursed angrily.

"It's not that simple," Frankenstein said, calmer than anyone else, "The hypothesis that the earth was destroyed by a true vacuum bubble has not yet been confirmed. If such a doomsday bubble really appears near Mars, the universe will enter a countdown.

, Mir cannot help even if it wants to, it can only move forward at full speed and stay away from Mars, so that we can still see the destruction of Mars in the further future."

Frankenstein is right. As early as the beginning of the 20th century, physicists pointed out that our universe is not empty. It is more like a boiling quantum ocean, with ghost-like particles everywhere.

appear, and disappear quickly.

In 1980, physicists Sidney Coleman and Frank DeLucia published an article titled "Gravitational Effects and Vacuum Decay" in the journal Physical Review.

This article helps us understand that our universe is not a true vacuum state as we think, but a pseudo vacuum state with a higher energy level than the true vacuum state.

Since vacuum is unstable, quanta at high energy levels always transition to low energy levels. This is the essence of vacuum decay.

Coleman and DeLucia mathematically simulated vacuum decay to find out how this phenomenon occurs.

They found that the spatial position when vacuum decay begins is random. It appears as a small bubble of true vacuum surrounded by unstable pseudo-vacuum. Once this small bubble is nucleated, it expands very quickly, and the expansion rate is rapid.

Approaching the speed of light, the larger and larger pseudo-vacuum area is swallowed up by it and transforms into a true vacuum at the same time.

The energy difference between the two states may reach a very large level. It is concentrated on the bubble wall and sweeps across the entire universe, destroying everything it encounters along the way.

If [vacuum decay] really occurs near Mars, it would be equivalent to announcing that the universe has officially blown the horn of death. True vacuum bubbles will rapidly expand at the speed of light, swallowing up all the planets in the solar system within five hours.

, then destroy the entire universe and bring the entire universe into a smaller and lower energy state.

"Why did a random true vacuum bubble appear in our solar system? The universe has existed for so long, why does it have to be so difficult for humans?" Dawson is too lazy to do scientific analysis. All of us here are elites. Such a simple truth is a preparatory school.

Students can all understand that if what Stanley said is true, he just wants to complain now.

Suzumiya was as patient as ever, "In the quantum world, high energy levels will always fall to low energy levels, so the false vacuum may fall toward the true vacuum at any time.

All it takes is a key, a creation-level energy event or just an accidental quantum tunneling."

Klein laughed, cold and scary, "Since humans have built quantum collider bigger and bigger, this kind of hidden danger has been laid. What is there to be surprised about? What is important is, what does this little bubble think?"
Chapter completed!