Stellarium (Origins): A Space-Time Adventure to the Ends of our Universe Read Free Page A

rather, it
might have, because at some point in the last 250,000 years, that star turned
into a red giant, increasing in size and throwing any potential for life on
that planet out of balance. Anyway, it’s much more likely that life never
existed there. But the interesting part is seeing how this planet’s structure
responds to the orbit of a red giant. Indeed—an interesting fact—that planet
has rings, like Saturn. That’s why we named it Sater. It’s Valkiria’s Saturn.”
    “And that’s why NASA is launching
phase two of the Stellarium space program,” she continued. “The plan is to send
a probe to orbit this planet, collect data, and, eventually, sometime in the
future, land on it. The problem is that this can’t be done autonomously. As you
know, Draco is more than 250,000 light years away... in other words, any
attempt at radio communication between someone on Earth and the probe would
take 200 years to get there, and over 200 years to come back. That’s why we
need to send astronauts. They would jump through the wormhole and release the
probe, which would travel to Sater to collect data, and then transmit this data
back to the astronauts’ spaceship. They would then jump back, without having
moved around Draco, and then travel back via the same spot that they had jumped
through the first time, approximately three times the distance from the Earth
to the moon. Then, they would relay the data to Houston and come home.”
    “It seems like an excellent
strategy,” said Hardt in agreement. “Though it is very risky. But anyway, how
do you all know that it’s safe to send humans through wormholes?”
    “Well, as I mentioned earlier,
the last two probes—the ninth and the tenth—were manned. The first carried
three rats, and the second a primate. NASA got special permission to keep these
last two missions a secret, as well as the discoveries from the eighth probe,
under the pretext of national security, so that they could carry out these
tests with scientific accuracy without having to worry about the influence of
public opinion. The good news is that all the crew members are doing well. The
trips were a success. In a few months, NASA is going to announce phase two of
Stellarium, explain the discoveries of the most recent probes, and let the
world know what’s coming.”
    “Allison, that’s great! I’m even
happier now than I was when I received the Nobel Prize a few hours ago! Indeed,
everything seems to have advanced so much and so quickly. Up until a few years
ago, we were still trying to prove my theory; now, we’re talking about sending
humans through wormholes and visiting a planet where there might have been
life?! That’s spectacular!” exclaimed Hardt excitedly.
    The old astrophysicist stopped
for a minute. He patted his jacket, looking for a handkerchief, and brought it
to his face. He was thrilled. He had dedicated more than 50 years of his life
to science. He would be turning 70 soon, and he was really happy to see this
happening during his lifetime.
    “I’m sorry, Allison, this is just
so much new information for an old astrophysicist. When will the mission be?”
asked Hardt, drinking a bit of the water that he had yet to touch.
    “Dr. Hardt, the mission will be
launched one year from now. And I’ll be on it. That’s the big news that I
wanted to share with you. Of course, I traveled from the United States to Switzerland
to be here for your award ceremony... but also because I wanted to tell you
about all this face-to-face.”
    “Allison, you mean that you’re
going to be one of the astronauts? Aboard the first human mission to another
galaxy, traveling through a wormhole?”
    “Yes! There will be three
astronauts. One of them will be the navigator specializing in the topology of
parts of the universe that, up until now, have only ever been studied by
probes... and someone familiar with the Draco Galaxy. They didn’t hesitate to
ask me if I wanted the position. I’m going