Chapter 45: Eternal Night_1

Jiang Yu didn't hide his surprise, "What is going on here?"

"Under the pull of the gravity of three stars, this planet 'lain' down," Yang Dong explained:

"I have to admit, this is quite a peculiar phenomenon. However, it's not unheard of; Uranus in the Solar System actually orbits 'lying down', looking rather 'lazy'.

"Uranus probably 'lay down' after an encounter with Jupiter a long time ago.

"In a star system with three suns, this phenomenon is not hard to understand.

"It must be that Trisolaris was 'flattened' by the gravitational forces from three different directions at just the right moment.

"Since then, Trisolaris has spun as usual, but its 'butt' always faces the sun, while its 'head' might not see the sun for decades, and this scene is rather like someone rolling on the ground."

Jiang Yu was a bit surprised, "Isn't it due to the tidal forces of the stars?"

"No," Yang Dong said with certainty: "If it were because of tidal forces that caused the planet to have only one side facing the sun, then there wouldn't be this 'Twilight Belt'.

"As soon as there are tidal forces that impact the rotation of a planet, it means it's too close to the stars. Then this place would be a planet filled with radiation and high temperature, completely devoid of life."

Jiang Yu looked at the "sunrise" on the horizon, "Although only a corner of the sun is showing, it seems to be larger than a normal sun."

"Indeed, otherwise there wouldn't have been such a long Stable Era," Yang Dong explained again:

"It's because Trisolaris is close enough to this sun that a stable period of development was formed. This civilization is even more advanced than the technology of the Later Han Period which we experienced before.

"The other two stars sometimes pull Trisolaris far away, but Trisolaris is quite lucky, always gradually returning to the vicinity of this sun."

Jiang Yu couldn't help but marvel, "It's really amazing!"

Yang Dong continued: "I learned from their historical documents that in the distant past, the environment of this planet underwent drastic changes.

"Under such a global catastrophe, there were still people who persisted in recording the situation of that time."

As she spoke, she changed the direction of the flying vehicle: "I guess that must have been when the planet just began to 'lay down'.

"Because of the drastic change in the axis of rotation, the entire planet's magnetic field and force field underwent significant changes, causing that disaster.

"If a disaster of that scale happened on Earth, I can bet humanity would have definitely gone extinct.

"Compared to the life forms on this planet, we are like flowers in a greenhouse; as soon as the Earth undergoes drastic changes, we would certainly be done for.

"The migratory birds would die even more miserably, their navigation systems would go haywire immediately.

"Of course, the greatest catastrophe would be the immediate drastic change in the atmosphere following the shift in the magnetic field's direction.

"Direct ultraviolet radiation, changing oxygen content, drastically altered climate, and so on and so forth, it's all so hopeless to think about."

Jiang Yu took a deep breath: "But the Trisolaran civilization still continued."

"Yes," said Yang Dong: "Truly a remarkable civilization."

Jiang Yu quickly reminded her: "No matter how remarkable, it's all fake; don't get too caught up in the play."

Yang Dong nodded, "I'm aware."

Her tone became slightly more cheerful, "I'm taking you for a one-day tour of Trisolaris."

While they spoke, the plane had already entered the Eternal Night Side. In a matter of minutes, the scenery outside went from early morning to dawn, then from dawn to before dawn.

Watching the greenery on the ground rapidly diminish until, under the spotlight of the aircraft, nothing remained but the barren, icy surface.

Jiang Yu couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed, fate had indeed been too harsh on this planet and its civilization.

As he thought this, Jiang Yu saw what looked like small patches of light on the ground.

Yang Dong explained, "Those are the archaeological teams on the Eternal Night Side. You haven't noticed them before, have you? The most active fields of study and industry on Trisolaris are archaeology.

"Because it's often more cost-effective to inherit the legacies of previous civilizations than to develop technology on one's own.

"Of course, there's a huge problem with that, which is that the technological path of the previous civilization might not necessarily be the correct one.

"In this civilization, I've calmly read through a lot of historical materials and found that every civilization on Trisolaris puts a lot of effort into preserving their own history.

"As if on this planet where nothing is sure to last, having a record of one's own civilization is the only way to prove that they once existed."

After a few seconds of silence, Jiang Yu finally said, "Perhaps that's the way the Trisolarans survive."

In the midst of their conversation, heavy snowflakes suddenly began to fall outside. Yang Dong looked at the vast expanse of snow outside and said, "It's very cold on the Eternal Night Side, unsuitable for human habitation.

"The Eternal Day Side, on the other hand, is very hot and can reach extremely high temperatures of over a hundred degrees.

"The atmosphere of the planet brings the heat from the air to this side, along with a large amount of water vapor.

"Here on the Eternal Night Side, the gaseous water condenses into snowflakes and then falls to the ground."

Jiang Yu laughed, "So does that mean all the water on the planet will end up falling on the Eternal Night Side?"

"Exactly," Yang Dong smiled and said, "According to historical records, not many years after the beginning of the Stable Era, the Eternal Day Side and the 'Twilight Belt' lost a great deal of water due to special environmental conditions.

"For a time, the 'snow harvesting industry' surpassed archaeology and became the backbone industry of the Trisolarans.

"But the snow they brought back from the Eternal Night Side was only enough for residents' drinking water and had little effect on the climate.

"Not until they made great advancements in space engineering did they begin to transport water to Trisolaris from outer space.

"Only then did the 'Twilight Belt' gradually recover its vitality."

This wave of challenges encountered by the Trisolaran Civilization was entirely beyond Jiang Yu's imagination: "Transporting water from outer space?"

Yang Dong asked Jiang Yu in return, "Do you know where Earth's water came from?"

Jiang Yu recalled for a moment, "I remember reading in a magazine somewhere that it came from the cosmos during the early formation of Earth."

"Not entirely," Yang Dong said, "Once our space industry gradually developed, scholars in related fields discovered that a large portion of Earth's water has accumulated over time.

"Every day, many blocks of ice, a few meters or even tens of meters in diameter, enter the atmosphere and join Earth's water system.

"Because the ice blocks are so small, they went undetected for a long time."

Jiang Yu made a sound of realization: "So, are there lots of such ice blocks around Trisolaris as well?"

Yang Dong speculated, "There should be many in every star system, even in the entire universe; the most abundant are probably these small celestial bodies in the form of ice blocks."

She continued, "Trisolaris is doing better than expected. Although it has three suns, which give an impression of intense heat,

"strangely enough, there are actually much denser fields of ice blocks than in the Solar System, along with many large ice block asteroids."

Perplexed, Yang Dong said, "Such dense clusters of small celestial bodies are commonly found around Gas Giant Planets, like Saturn's rings that stretch for 280,000 kilometers.

"Why would so many small bodies exist around a solid planet like Trisolaris?"