Europa is a world dominated by solid ice.
After crossing 700 million kilometers of empty vacuum, the sun's heat can no longer bring heat to the world.
Most of the heat that supports the operation of this world comes from Europa's not yet fully condensed core, and a small amount of heat is provided by Jupiter.
In addition to direct thermal radiation from Jupiter, mechanical energy is also an important way to obtain heat. When Europa orbits Jupiter, it will be constantly torn by Jupiter's strong gravity.
Because of the satellite's rotation, the point where Jupiter's gravity is strongest on Europa is actually constantly changing, causing it to be stretched in all directions into an elliptical shape, like dough on a baking board.
It's this constant pulling over millions of years that has created Europa's smooth surface. Jupiter's gravity converts internal energy into the ice. When this energy accumulates to a certain level, the ice will tear apart, and seawater from the underground ocean will surge out under pressure. Then, when it encounters cold, it will solidify and form a new layer of ice.
This process will fill in all the uneven structures on Europa's surface, so you won't even find any craters caused by meteorite impacts on its surface.
Although from a human perspective, the ice surface is still covered with gullies, but from the perspective of the entire planet, Europa is as flat as a mirror, and the largest drop on the planet does not exceed 50 meters.
This makes it a natural ice skating rink.
In its northern hemisphere, there is an artificial ice rink covering an area of more than 700 square kilometers, where the Europa Race is held at a specific time every ten years.
At that time, contestants from various civilizations and species will come here wearing thick space suits and compete for the honor of first place on a track of more than 200 kilometers.
Bai Yi found a place and sat down casually.
This is the top of a small hill about 30 meters high, the highest point in sight.
The sun was emerging from below the horizon.
From this distance, the area of the sun is only 1/25 of that seen from the earth, and Bai Yi can block it with the tip of his little finger.
But the light it emits still brings a hint of dawn to the world.
Bai Yi liked this scene very much.
The pale sunlight shone from the farthest point of view, almost parallel to the ground. The ice surface looked pale under this light, and the slightly raised hills made of ice and snow cast long shadows in the background.
But the ice surface is not completely white. At angles where the sunlight does not fully reach, a yellowish-brown luster can be seen.
That is the shadow of Jupiter.
Due to the distance of its satellites, Jupiter looks very large, occupying almost half of the sky, which is very oppressive.
When people stare at it, it feels like they are falling into the violent airflow.
The sun was fully up.
The thin atmosphere on the side facing the sun began to flow due to thermal convection, and the wind it brought blew against Bai Yi's clothes, making them rustle.
Since his previous clothes were shattered by Arel's slap, he was now wearing the other's casual clothes. Coincidentally, Arel's size was exactly the same as his, so this white shirt fit him perfectly.
Bai Yi used his legs to alternate strength, moving from a sitting position to a squatting position. He reached into the snow pit he had dug nearby and pulled out a can of drink.
In the low temperature and low pressure environment of Europa's surface, the beverage liquid inside quickly expanded and froze into ice, and the aluminum can outside turned into a piece of twisted metal under such pressure.
But this was no obstacle for Bai Yi. He simply slashed the can with his finger blade, and it was thrown in the middle, leaving only the frozen drink.
Just like eating ice cubes when he was a child, Bai Yi broke off a small piece from a large piece of drink and put it in his mouth, letting it slowly melt into water under the temperature of his mouth.
He vaguely saw a dark shadow on the ground, so he looked up at the sky and saw a small dot of light flashing across the black universe.
Through the eye zoom, Bai Yi confirmed that it was a spaceship. More precisely, it was a battleship belonging to the Solar System Defense Force, and its type was a super dreadnought.
This is a very old type of ship, as old as the battleships from the Earth's naval war era that did not yet use the central axis turret arrangement.
The concept of super dreadnought was born in the middle of the expeditionary era. At that time, the earthlings encountered a tough opponent, and the Earth's United Nations Space Force urgently needed a large spacecraft that could serve as the main force of the attack.
The craft had to be able to carry large-caliber weapons and hold out for extended periods under enemy fire.
However, the largest battleships at that time could not meet this requirement.
According to engineers' calculations, existing battleships must be expanded at least five times to have sufficient internal space to accommodate extra-large caliber artillery and various equipment while ensuring protection.
So an outrageous design was proposed, which carried 6 super-large caliber main guns, 32 triple-mounted secondary guns, 136 anti-aircraft guns, and an estimated construction cost of more than 80 million quantum yuan.
From today's perspective, this design is very inefficient.
For example, the six main guns and 32 secondary guns were placed on either side of the ship, so the batteries could not fire at the same target at any one time. In addition, the additional armor squeezed out the AA guns, forcing many of them to be mounted outside the deck without protection.
When facing intensive enemy fire, the ship is likely to lose half of its anti-aircraft firepower in a short period of time.
In addition, the ship also has problems such as insufficient power, defects in the reactor energy tubes, and seriously exceeded construction costs.
Therefore, the original plan to build 16 Dawn-class super dreadnoughts was hastily stopped after only one was launched.
The only Dawn-class ship ever built, the Dawn, had a less-than-stellar haul. Due to a lack of experience in building ships of this size, many design flaws weren't revealed until after the ship's official launch and testing. By the time the ship had been patched up, the super-dreadnought was no longer useful.
Her place was taken by the more advanced and mature dreadnought, a larger ship slightly smaller than the super-dreadnought. Learning from the failures of the Aurora class, the latter adopted a centerline turret layout similar to that of a battleship, while its lack of tankiness was compensated by a thicker shield generator.
As one side gained strength while the other lost, the Dawn never saw its own Dawn again. It was not until the end of the expedition, when the fleet was short of ships, that the ship was modernized based on the idea that modification was better than construction.
But this time, the war was over before she even set foot on the battlefield.
After that, the Dawn served as the flagship of the Earth Defense Force, appearing in various exercises with a posture that was more symbolic than practical.
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