Chapter 134: Gravitational Field Confinement

Xu Zihan watched Zhang Mingyang walk further and further away, then complained to her sister, "Sis, why did you let him go?"

Xu Yuqing looked at Zhang Mingyang’s retreating figure and replied, "Little sister, you and he are not on the same path. I advise you to give up."

"Why?"

She did not understand why her sister would say that. "Sis? Do you know something?"

Xu Yuqing looked at her sister and replied with a smile, "His path is different from yours. You two will not end up together."

"Sis, can you be clearer? What do you mean?"

Xu Yuqing glanced back at Zhang Mingyang once more, murmuring, "You will understand in the future."

...

After parting ways with the two, Zhang Mingyang arrived at Emerald Mountain and took the elevator down to the underground laboratory.

As the elevator doors opened, Lin Su greeted him with a smile, "You finally decided to come back, kid."

Zhang Mingyang and his senior fellow apprentice, Lin Su, embraced and exchanged pleasantries for a while before the other team members stepped forward one by one to greet him.

Lin Su looked at Zhang Mingyang’s arm and said with a solemn expression, "The teacher told me everything. Mingyang, you’ve suffered."

"What’s that supposed to mean?" Zhang Mingyang patted his senior's arm. "Let’s not talk about that for now. I need to check the equipment immediately."

"Alright."

With that, the group walked over to the reactor, which had already been shut down.

Lin Su pointed at the reactor and said, "Ever since you and the teacher left, the reactor only ran once, for six days. In the end, it shut down automatically due to material issues."

Looking at the reactor, Zhang Mingyang recalled the fusion equipment powering the base's hadron collider. He said, "Senior, several trucks will be arriving in the next few days to deliver facility materials. Please arrange for their reception."

"Delivering materials?"

Lin Su thought for a moment and asked excitedly, "Did the teacher really manage to get new materials?"

Zhang Mingyang nodded and replied, "That’s right. I went to the capital with the teacher specifically to resolve this issue."

In truth, Zhang Mingyang had requested them from Wang Bowen. He had told Wang that he had a way to further improve the fusion equipment but needed some lunar metals. Upon hearing this, Wang Bowen immediately authorized three tons of the metal, telling him to experiment boldly.

Zhang Mingyang indeed had an idea he was prepared to test.

"Senior, I have an idea. See if you think it's feasible."

Lin Su replied, "Go ahead. Let's all put our heads together and weigh in."

Zhang Mingyang asked, "Senior, do you remember the internal structure of the Sun?"

"The internal structure of the Sun?" Lin Su replied, "Of course I do. The Sun has a core reaction zone, a radiative zone, a convection zone, and an atmosphere."

"The region from the center to 0.25 solar radii is the true source of the Sun's immense energy, also known as the nuclear reaction zone."

"The temperature at the Sun's core reaches 15 million degrees, and the pressure is equivalent to 300 billion atmospheres. Four hydrogen nuclei are constantly undergoing thermonuclear fusion to form one helium nucleus."

"According to nuclear physics and the mass-energy equivalence formula E=mc², every second, 600 million tons of hydrogen are converted through thermonuclear fusion into 596 million tons of helium, releasing energy equivalent to 4 million tons of hydrogen."

"From 0.25 to 0.86 solar radii is the radiative zone, which contains various electromagnetic radiations and particle streams. The process of energy transfer from the inside to the outside involves being absorbed and re-emitted by matter multiple times. On its journey from the nuclear reaction zone to the solar surface, energy radiates outward in the form of X-rays, far-ultraviolet rays, ultraviolet rays, and finally, visible light."

"The convection zone is the outer region of the radiative zone, with a thickness of about a hundred thousand kilometers. The temperature, pressure, and density gradients in the convection zone are very large, leaving the solar gas in an unstable state of convection. This causes strong radial convective motion of matter, where hot matter moves outward and cold matter sinks inward. The Sun's internal energy is transported from the interior to the exterior through this convection of matter."

"Everything above the solar photosphere is collectively known as the solar atmosphere. Spanning the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves and visible light to gamma rays, it can be observed to be divided into five main parts: the temperature minimum region, the chromosphere, the transition region, the corona, and the heliosphere. The heliosphere is likely the thinnest outer edge of the solar atmosphere, extending beyond Pluto's orbit to the boundary with interstellar matter. This boundary is called the heliopause, where a sheared shock front is formed. The temperatures of the chromosphere, transition region, and corona are all higher than the solar surface. The reason for this has not been confirmed, but evidence points to Alfven waves potentially carrying enough energy to heat the corona."

After finishing, Lin Su looked at the others. "Was I correct?"

"Yes!"

The others nodded; it was a very comprehensive explanation.

Lin Su then asked Zhang Mingyang, "Mingyang, why are you asking about this?"

Zhang Mingyang replied, "We all know the internal structure of the Sun, so could we build a sun?"

"Huh?"

The group burst into laughter upon hearing this. "Mingyang, aren't we already building one?"

Zhang Mingyang shook his head and replied, "I'm not talking about the current type of facility that uses magnetic fields for confinement. I'm talking about using the Sun's mass to create one."

"Using the Sun's mass?"

The group looked at one another, not quite understanding.

"Mingyang, just say it directly. What is your idea?"

Zhang Mingyang brought up a VR projection displaying the Sun. Pointing to it, he explained, "We all know the Sun doesn't disperse because its core mass is huge; large mass leads to strong gravity. Its core is plasma under high temperature and pressure, which constantly undergoes nuclear fusion under the constraint of gravity, releasing enormous energy."

"Modern astronomical theory suggests the Sun was born in the Oort cloud, starting from the initial center of mass—ordinary rock—gathering interstellar material. However, only when this rocky core becomes large enough can it retain gaseous elements like hydrogen and helium."

"We all know that the Sun's nuclear fusion is a proton-proton chain reaction. Two hydrogen nuclei (protons) fuse to become deuterium; one proton releases a positron and a neutrino to become a neutron. The positron immediately annihilates with an electron, and their mass is carried away as two gamma-ray photons. Then, the deuterium fuses with another hydrogen atom to form the lighter helium isotope, Helium-3."

"But this reaction has a prerequisite: it requires high temperature and high pressure. And the formation of high temperature and high pressure requires a very large mass and strong gravity. So, let’s think: can we replace current magnetic field confinement with gravitational field confinement?"

"Gravitational field confinement?"

The group felt this sounded too surreal!

"Mingyang, how would we do that?"

Zhang Mingyang manipulated the projection to dissect the Sun. He isolated the core and said, "We create a solar core! We build a core with an extremely large mass! Using the gravitational constraint method!"

"Huh?"

The group exclaimed that this was impossible! They had never learned how to build a mass core like that!