Chapter 1235 - The Vast Universe
Chapter 1235: The Vast Universe
“This is Jupiter, Mrs. Ye,” Mark who was the professor on duty said.
He Xiyan took a deep breath.
She had to admit that she was impressed. She had studied geography and she had also seen pictures of the eight planets in the solar system online but this was the first time she saw a planet through a telescope.
She could even see Jupiter slowly spinning and see the clouds that surrounded it moving and as well as the Great Red Spot.
“Wow! I can’t believe Jupiter looks like that. It doesn’t look anything like the pictures I’ve seen online,” she exclaimed. She was astonished and awestruck by the grandeur of the planet.
Ye Hao stood beside He Xiyan. Just as he had expected, she looked as excited and as happy as when he had first visited. He didn’t manage to see Jupiter when he had visited the previous time because the telescope wasn’t pointed in the direction of Jupiter.
“How big is Jupiter?” He Xiyan had forgotten the knowledge she had learned in school. She only knew that Jupiter was the largest planet in the solar system.
“Jupiter is 2.5 times heavier than any other planet in the solar system and it is 318 times heavier than Earth. It has a surface area that is 1321 times that of Earth’s and its diameter is 10% of the sun’s diameter,” Ye Hao said with a tiny smile.
He would bring her anywhere as long as it made her happy.
He Xiyan turned to look at him and said, “I’m surprised you’ve committed these facts to memory.”
He Xiyan didn’t know that Ye Hao was so interested in astronomy.
The observatory was equipped with the most advanced telescopes, including radio telescopes and space telescopes that could be used to see planets that were more than 10 billion light-years away.
He Xiyan noticed a beautiful cloud formation on the screen next to her. It was colorful and seemed to be a dreamy cross between deep blue and red. She also spotted white, yellow and blue dots in the cloud formation and guessed that they were probably stars.
She stared at this scene in wide-eyed wonder.
“Where is that?” He Xiyan asked Professor Mark.
This was simply amazing. She couldn’t believe how beautiful the vast universe could be.
“This is the Trifid Nebula. It is located in Sagittarius and is the closest to the galaxy’s center. It is probably 5,000 light-years away from Earth.”
“5,000 light-years?” He Xiyan repeated dumbly as she stared at the beautiful scene in front of her.
She couldn’t fathom what 5,000 light-years away was like. She knew that it took 8 minutes for the sun’s rays to reach the Earth, so she wondered what it was like to be 5,000 light-years away…”
“This nebula is made up of an open cluster of stars, which are made up of hundreds or thousands of stars that are loosely connected. The energetic light from these stars strikes hydrogen atoms in the surrounding nebula causing them to lose their electrons. When an electron finds its way back to a hydrogen proton, it emits lights of beautiful colors. This is what produces this beautiful sight that can only be seen in space,” Mark said. He spoke in Chinese because he had lived in China for a long time. However, he used such professional jargon that He Xiyan didn’t really understand him.
She only knew that there was a beautiful nebula on the screen and that those lighted dots were stars. There were so many stars.
“Are these stars born in the nebula?” she asked like a curious child. She enjoyed looking at stars when she was a child and enjoyed thinking about interesting topics as she looked at the stars in the sky.