Chapter 145: Waiting

Meanwhile, after a period of escape, Karl Wade and Dahl Kind pushed their spaceship engines to the maximum and finally put some distance between themselves and their pursuers.

At this point, Karl Wade said:
"Ah, although we are still some distance away from our destination, we have finally shaken off the enemy."

However, Dahl Kind replied:
"My leader, please do not let your guard down. We have not yet crossed the orbit of Pluto. If we do not make the most of every moment to press on, we might be annihilated before reaching the orbit of Neptune."

Karl Wade said:
"Oh, I was momentarily confused. You are right, let us get moving at once."

With that, the two continued their advance toward the orbit of Neptune, attempting to reach Triton and conceal themselves before being caught again.

……

However, what Karl Wade and the others did not know was that at this very moment, Goba Khov, the Supreme Leader of the Galactic Empire, was also aware of the events unfolding in the unauthorized sectors. Chuckling, he spoke to Moor Ross, the Chief of Staff of the Galactic Empire standing before him:

"My friend, take a look! It seems the Yuri Gotetne Group has quite a dispute over claiming merits! Right now, they certainly never expected that we also have monitors stationed in the Kuiper Boarder. I just wonder which two space pilots these might be. Are they enjoying their high-speed dash through space right now?"

Moor Ross said:
"My Leader, this is not necessarily a good thing. Under normal circumstances, we could indeed use this to give the Yuri Gotetne Group a taste of their own medicine. However, their current quest for merits will inevitably give the Gomarians an opportunity to exploit the situation. We must still prevent this and prioritize the bigger picture."

Upon hearing this, Goba Khov said:
"You are entirely right, prioritize the bigger picture. But the problem is that we currently do not have as many pilots as the Yuri Gotetne Group. Our forces are predominantly ground troops; otherwise, even while considering the bigger picture, wiping out the Yuri Gotetne Group right now and dealing with the Gomarians in battle would still be no problem at all."

Moor Ross then said:
"My Leader, should we take action against that gigantic space satellite? I have already formulated a plan to seize that satellite."

Hearing this, Goba Khov smiled and said:
"There is no need. We can seize it whenever we wish. The issue is that our space forces are currently limited, and after all, many of those primitive kindred who recently swore allegiance to us still need to learn slowly. Even if we captured it right now, due to a lack of sufficient personnel to maintain and service it, it would eventually become scrap metal anyway. It is better to let the Yuri Gotetne Group continue repairing it for now, and we can discuss the rest later."

After thinking it over, Moor Ross replied:
"Understood, the Leader is wise. Since that is the case, should we investigate those other unidentified flying objects that breached our atmosphere? After all, they also pose a threat to us."

Goba Khov thought for a moment and said:
"Mm, what you said is very true. For now, our strength is still limited to operating within the atmosphere, which is more advantageous for us since our space forces are sparse. You should dispatch men to investigate, because I also wish to understand which alien civilization they hail from. However, it would be even better if you could capture some live specimens."

Moor Ross said:
"Yes, my Leader."

Having spoken, Moor Ross saluted and walked out of the Leader's office.

……

Meanwhile, inside a restaurant belonging to the Liu Family Mercantile in Hezhou City, Zhang Desen felt that the heavy rain was bringing a fresh batch of troublesome complications. After all, his personal intention was to resolve the matter concerning Sun Fu before him as quickly as possible, and then begin deploying tonight's operation in order to capture the masterminds responsible for the ceaseless disappearances of certain individuals.

Yet, with the rain pouring down so heavily now, he grew deeply concerned that those individuals might arrive even later. Pondering these matters, Zhang Desen immediately decided not to waste any more time; he resolved to seize this window of opportunity right away to study and deploy the evening's operation. In truth, Zhang Desen was also intensely curious about these mysterious culprits.

At that moment, however, Feng Ling'er suddenly felt a bit fatigued. Seeing Zhang Desen eating his food there, she did not stand on ceremony in the slightest, walking straight over and picking some up to eat.

Zhang Desen could not help but say:
"I must say, Eldest Miss Feng, can you not eat your own food? This table happens to be mine, you know."

Feng Ling'er instantly shifted her tone, put her hands on her hips, and retorted to Zhang Desen:
"Hmph! After I helped you beat back those petty villains for so long, you are actually going to bicker with me over just this little thing?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Desen said:
"All right, all right. Whatever sounds get transmitted out later won't do me any harm; I just wonder how Miss Feng will fare."

Without answering, Feng Ling'er simply continued eating her food.

Caring little to bicker further at the moment, Zhang Desen called Li Longfang over and handed him a dossier regarding the Jovian ring system, asking him to look it over.

The Jovian ring system, or rings of Jupiter, is a planetary ring system surrounding Jupiter. It was the third planetary ring system discovered in the Solar System, following the rings of Saturn and Uranus.

The Jovian rings were first observed in 1979 by the Voyager 1 space probe and investigated in detail during the 1990s by the Galileo orbiter. The rings can also be observed by the Hubble Space Telescope and from Earth, though observing them from the ground requires the largest telescopes currently in existence.

The faint Jovian ring system is composed primarily of dust. It is divided into four main components: a thick inner torus of particles known as the "halo"; a relatively bright, exceptionally thin "main ring"; and two wide, thick, and faint outer "gossamer rings" (or "cobweb rings"), named after the moons from whose material they are formed: Amalthea and Thebe.

The main ring and halo of Jupiter are composed of dust ejected from the moons Metis, Adrastea, and other unobserved parent bodies through high-speed impacts. High-resolution images obtained by the New Horizons spacecraft in February and March 2007 revealed a rich fine structure within the main ring.

In visible light and near-infrared light, the Jovian rings appear red, except for the halo, which appears gray or blue. The dust sizes within the rings vary, but for all rings except the halo, the maximum cross-sectional area is for non-spherical particles with a radius of approximately 15 micrometers.

The halo is composed primarily of sub-micron dust. The total mass of the ring system (including unseen parent bodies) is poorly constrained, but is estimated to be around 10 kilograms. The age of the ring system is unknown, though it may have existed since the formation of Jupiter.

The narrow and thin main ring is the brightest part of Jupiter's ring system. Its outer boundary lies at a radius of approximately 1.806 RJ (about 129,000 km, where RJ = Jupiter equatorial radius, or 71,398 km) and coincides with the orbit of Jupiter's smallest inner moon, Adrastea. Its inner boundary is not aligned with any moon and is located at approximately 122,500 km (1.72 RJ).

From the above data, the width of the main ring is approximately 6,500 km. The appearance of the main ring varies depending on the viewing angle. Illuminated by forward-scattered light (light scattered at a small angle relative to the sunlight), the brightness of the main ring drops sharply at 128,600 km (just inside the orbit of Adrastea) and falls to background levels at 129,300 km (just outside the orbit of Adrastea). Therefore, Adrastea at 129,000 km clearly marks the position of the main ring.

Except for a prominent gap near the orbit of Metis at 128,000 km, the brightness increases the closer one gets to Jupiter, reaching a peak at the center of the ring from 128,000 km inward. In contrast to the outer boundary, the inner boundary of the main ring fades out slowly from 124,000 to 120,000 km, merging seamlessly with the halo. All Jovian rings become exceptionally bright when illuminated by forward-scattered light.

The upper image shows the main ring illuminated by back-scattered light as photographed by New Horizons, revealing the fine structure of the outer main ring. The lower image shows the main ring illuminated by forward-scattered light, revealing no structure other than the Metis notch.

The high vertical thickness of the halo is caused by the electromagnetic forces of Jupiter's magnetosphere, which excite the orbital inclination and orbital eccentricity of the dust particles. The outer boundary of the halo overlaps with a strong Lorentz resonance (a resonance occurring when the orbital motion of a particle and the rotation of the planetary magnetosphere have a ratio of orbital periods that is a rational number). As the Poynting-Robertson effect slowly drags particles inward toward Jupiter, their orbital inclinations are excited as they pass through. The flourishing main ring may well mark the beginning of the halo.

In March 1979, as the Voyager 1 space probe crossed Jupiter's equatorial plane at a distance of 600 million kilometers from Earth, it transmitted a large number of precious photographs. Unexpectedly, it revealed that Jupiter, much like Saturn, possessed a planetary ring. Four months later, the Voyager 2 probe flew past Jupiter and confirmed this conclusion. However, the Jovian rings differ significantly from Saturn's rings; the rings of Jupiter are diffuse and transparent, consisting of three parts: a bright ring, a dark ring, and a halo. The bright ring lies outside the dark ring, while the halo is an extremely thin veil of dust entirely enveloping both the bright and dark rings. The Jovian rings lie approximately 128,000 kilometers from the center of Jupiter, with a width of 9,000 kilometers and a thickness of only a few thousand kilometers. They are composed of massive quantities of dust and black rock fragments ranging in size from one-thousandth of a millimeter to tens of meters. Non-reflective and invisible to the naked eye, these fragments orbit Jupiter with a period of approximately 7 hours. Encompassing the immense bulk of Jupiter with a dim and slender band, discovering the Jovian ring was indeed an arduous task. It holds vital implications for studying the origin and evolution of planets, suggesting that other planets as well may possess elusive rings.