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Chapter 138: Approaching Doomsday
Today, all countries that had spared no effort to observe the space, had specialized observatories that recorded what they saw and heard, trying to discover the secret law of the universe and the stellar planets.
The United States of America not only had a number of observatories, but also funded for research and space telescopes in the Earth's orbit.
The most famous telescope was the Hubble.
In the vast universe, the biggest threat currently was the meteorites.
Large meteorites were wider than hundreds of kilometers, small ones were only a few centimeters long.
At least five tons of meteorites affected the earth every day.
Most of the meteorites were burned out by high temperature vaporization in the atmosphere, and a small part of the meteorites that rushed out of the atmosphere would be very likely to fall into the sea.
In the National Optical Observatory, the staff were responsible for observing some meteorites that might hit the Earth every day.
The meteorite numbered Y199831, about 200 kilometers in diameter, was moving normally in space at a cosmic speed.
In the first few days, though the staff discovered the meteorite and derived its final forward orbit and acceleration, no one cared about it because it would most likely not hit the earth.
The number of meteorites in the universe that accidentally swept through space, was an astronomical figure; hence, all the staff regarded it as a trivial matter.
However, as time went by, the meteorite Y199831 began to accelerate abnormally, and the orbit became faintly closer to the earth, which attracted the attention of astronomers and assistants.
They collected the data of the meteorite over the past 100 hours and transmitted to the NASA internal forum, and then an astronomer's Internet research discussion was held.
“Is the location of the meteorite accurate?”
"In such a short period of time, the speed increased abnormally? In addition, the speed tripled? It has reached 540,000 kilometers per hour!"
"We have checked many times with the Hubble telescope. The location of the meteorite is correct."
"Although the meteorite accelerates strangely, it is precedented! The Halley's comet that bypasses the earth every 76 years also keeps speeding up and derailing to update its new forward orbit." After knowing that the data was correct, many experts and professors raised their own personal conjectures about the sudden acceleration of the meteorite.
Some even predicted that it might be interfered by the sun's gravitational waves, and soon it would stabilize.
Some optimistic experts joked that it might be a new comet, perhaps a younger brother of Halley's Comet, visiting the Earth every occasionally.
However, 8 hours later, no astronomers dared to joke!
In the observatory, the computer showed that the meteorite would no longer follow the same orbit, but would hit the earth after a week!
Hundreds of astronomers were stunned since an argument related to meteorites was widely known when scientists studied the mystery of dinosaur extinction.
That was, the dinosaur went extinct in a ten-kilometer meteorite impact and its chain reaction - huge tsunamis, global fires, acid rain and atmospheric dust that blocked sunlight for months or years.
Now, it turned out that a huge meteorite was rushing towards the earth unstoppably, though human beings, with advanced technology, were not like the dinosaurs, how many people would die a week later?
They immediately contacted the White House.
Hearing the astonishing speech of astronomers, President Trump had a headache.
As he was busy with the China-US trade war, such bad news really disappointed him.
"Can we attack the meteorite to destroy it with nuclear weapons?" Scratching his head, President Trump frowned.
"Mr. President, your whimsy is very good."
Learning about the speed of nuclear bombing, astronomer George smiled and shook his head to President Trump. "However, bluntly speaking, space is different from the atmosphere. Even with multiple rockets as a driving force, the speed of nuclear weapons is hard to catch up with the meteorite since the two were not on the same level."
After a quick review of a large number of confidential documents, President Trump was thrilled.
"I remember that we have an international space station in outer space, which is equipped with laser weapons to annihilate the meteorites that may hit the space station in advance, can we use it to deal with the current crisis?”
Instantly, National Aeronautics and Space Administration Director Edward reminded him.
"Mr. President.”
"Those laser weapons can deal with a small amount of small meteorites that occasionally hit the space station, but its laser power is not enough to crush a huge target of more than 200 kilometers in diameter!
Upon hearing this, President Trump frowned and became even more anxious.
In a week, the meteorite will hit the earth?
In such a short period of time, even if he wants to organize the deployment of protective measures, it is too late!
With more than 300 million people living in the United States, how many people can survive in the catastrophe?
Taking a deep breath, President Trump immediately ordered the major astronomers to calculate the exact location of the meteorite impact in the shortest possible time.
He also made the worst plans, such as evacuating people in advance, maintaining post-disaster order and stocking relief supplies.
Of course, in order to maintain social stability, it was impossible to concede until the last moment.
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