It was another ordinary and boring day. Luo Shu stood at the Mauna Kea Observatory, looking at the desolate scenery around him.
Those in the know understand that Mauna Kea is a famous astronomical observation site, while those who don't might think it's located in a desolate mountain range.
However, Mauna Kea is indeed very desolate, and the observatory is the only building in the area. The shape of its dome is reminiscent of alien architecture in American science fiction movies.
Mauna Kea is part of the Hawaiian volcanic group, and volcanic eruptions have left the mountain devoid of vegetation.
Because of the pandemic, Luo Shu hasn't been back for two years. His college classmates envy him for having Hawaii's desert beaches and sunshine all to himself, but only he knows how miserable he is.
They spend most of their time with the wind and sand, guarding the radio telescope array at the Mauna Kea Observatory, observing micro galaxies, submicron, infrared, and fast radio burst phenomena.
Graduating with a bachelor's degree in astronomy means unemployment. Finding a satisfactory job is extremely difficult. To work at a domestic astronomical observatory guarding a telescope, you need a master's degree, unless it's an observatory in a remote location that nobody wants to work at.
At institutions like the Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing, a doctorate is the minimum requirement (for a formal position).
Fortunately, Luo Shu had a good undergraduate GPA and two lab internships, which helped him get accepted into the University of Hawaii at Hilo for a PhD in Astronomy.
Many public universities in America are university clusters, consisting of many branch campuses. For example, the famous University of California, Berkeley is a branch campus of the University of California system.
UC Shiloh's US ranking isn't great, probably around 300th in the country, but its astronomy program is among the world's best because it's located near the Mauna Kea Observatory.
America offers generous scholarships for PhD students, but the high cost of living in Hawaii makes it difficult for Luo Shu to live comfortably.
Therefore, he would occasionally take on the task of guarding the Mauna Kea Observatory, responsible for observing for any unusual signals. If there were any, he would analyze them himself first, and then report to the professor if he found any incomprehensible anomalies.
After standing by the window for a while, he returned to the lab and continued working on the observation interface.
Regular radio signals began to appear on the interface, but Luo Shu remained completely unmoved, as radio signals were a common occurrence.
Humans have launched too many satellites into space; even on Mars, there are still eight orbiters and four landers in operation.
China's Zhurong spacecraft successfully landed just last year.
It's not surprising that regular radio signals are coming from outer space, but Luo Shu noticed something was off upon closer inspection.
Because observations show that the radio signal is attenuating quite badly.
Knowing that electromagnetic waves experience attenuation during their transmission path, Luo Shu mentally recalled the formula for calculating the free-space loss of electromagnetic waves:
Lbf = 32.5 + 20lgF + 20lgD.
This calculation formula assumes an ideal temperature of 25 degrees Celsius and a pressure of 1 atmosphere.
In reality, radio signals transmitted back from outer space are bound to contain errors.
Luo Shu assumed the intensity of the electromagnetic wave emission, but after careful calculation, he found something was wrong. In terms of distance, this series of regular radio signals came from 6 billion kilometers away.
No human has launched any observation instruments or satellites at this location.
Luo Shu was somewhat bewildered for a moment. He began to count whether any of the cosmic observatories that Earth had ever launched had transmitted data back from a distance of approximately 6 billion kilometers.
"Pioneer? No, Pioneer 11 is almost in Aquila. Voyager? No, Voyager 2 left the heliosphere and escaped the solar system two years ago."
"It's about 6 billion kilometers away from Earth, still inside the solar system."
"Voyager 1? That's even more wrong. Voyager 1 left the solar system in 12 years."
"The New Horizons probe is somewhat similar, but the problem is that New Horizons has already entered the central Kuiper Belt, so the distance is also different."
Luo Shu listed all the observation instruments that humans have launched into deep space, and none of them met the distance requirement.
He began to think carefully: "This distance is roughly the distance to Pluto, and it's Hawaiian daylight saving time now."
"Let me calculate it again carefully."
After detailed calculations based on the geographical location of the Mauna Kea Observatory, Luo Shu discovered that the signal originated roughly in the vicinity of Pluto.
He was certain that at this point in time, there was absolutely no device on Pluto capable of transmitting radio waves.
"After eliminating all the impossible scenarios, the only remaining possibility is: do aliens really exist?"
As Luo Shu was calculating the attenuation signal of the electromagnetic waves, the sun had already set behind Mauna Kea.
The radio observation equipment in deep space kept receiving repeated radio signals, proving that the phenomenon that Roshu had just observed was not an illusion.
Roche realized this was an opportunity for him to decipher the radio signals before other astronomers.
The thought made him not report the phenomenon to his mentor immediately.
"???" Luo Shu was filled with questions. "Aliens use Morse code too?"
Luo Shu was astonished after translating the radio signal; wasn't this just Morse code?
The long signal was - and the short signal was . Luo Shu was greatly disappointed. He suspected that his calculations were inaccurate and that the radio transmitter might simply be located on Mars.
He now suspects that these are radio signals transmitted from Mars.
But Luo Shu wanted to see what the Morse code would actually be, and she had wasted an entire afternoon on this.
"It's unforgivable that it prevented me from taking a break and slacking off."
"...represents h"
"- represents t"
"Another one -"
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