Wandering Meteor
Chapter 70 Barred Spiral Nebula

Chapter 70: Chapter 70 Barred Spiral Nebula

The universe is boundless and vast, filled with darkness and cold.

Seeking a planet in such a vast environment is undoubtedly akin to finding a needle in a haystack, extremely difficult!

Lu Chen and Wandering are of course well aware of this, especially since they became an interstellar meteorite, their journey through space has made them witness the vastness and depth of the universe!

Even now, where Lu Chen has become a Constant Star, in the grand scheme of the universe, he is at most but a speck of dust, and if one must add a flattering title, it would be nothing more than a speck of dust that can glow.

However, despite facing enormous difficulties, Lu Chen and Wandering have not given up.

They searched within the Perseus spiral arm while pondering, if Earth was not destroyed by an Advanced Civilization, in which direction would it most likely have gone?

To clarify this, one needs to first understand the basic situation of the Milky Way nebula.

According to the current knowledge, the Milky Way is a giant Barred Spiral Nebula, with the diameter of its central halo part reaching 70,000 light-years. Together with the length of the edge spiral arms, this constitutes the massive size of the Milky Way nebula, spanning over a hundred thousand light-years. Inside the halo, there is a bar made up of billions of old Constant Stars that glow, which, under the gravitational pull of the central Black Hole, rotates, carrying along the surrounding interstellar material.

Hence, the Milky Way nebula is also known as the Barred Spiral Nebula.

From the perspective of the Universe, it is as if within a vast circular cloud, a huge Jingu Bang is stirring slowly.

Outside of the Milky Way nebula’s core, there are four main spiral arms connected by Gravity. The first main spiral arm is divided into the three-kiloparsec spiral arm and the Perseus spiral arm; the second main spiral arm is divided into the Mensa spiral arm and the Swan Constellation spiral arm; the third main spiral arm is divided into the Southern Cross spiral arm and the Shield Constellation spiral arm; the fourth main spiral arm is divided into the Carina spiral arm and the Sagittarius spiral arm.

In addition, there is a minor spiral arm branch, which is the Orion spiral arm.

The Solar System, where Earth was originally located, is precisely within the Orion spiral arm, and the Orion spiral arm is situated on the edge of the Milky Way nebula, with only the Perseus spiral arm beyond it. The rest are either on the other side of the Milky Way nebula or on the inside of the Orion spiral arm.

In the long run, it would be best to wander towards the outer Perseus spiral arm.

Because if you go towards the Sagittarius spiral arm inside, even if you can find a suitable star system for docking, Earth would still have to consider the collision crisis of the two giant nebulas one day.

At that time, Earth will need to spend more effort on the escape plan: first return from the Sagittarius spiral arm to the Orion spiral arm, then cross the Perseus spiral arm, and finally escape the Milky Way.

Going upwards or downwards would be very difficult due to the rotation of the Milky Way, with enormous energy consumption. Moreover, the height of the Milky Way is more than ten thousand light-years, making it a farther journey than moving outwards.

Therefore, it would be better to move in the direction of the Perseus spiral arm from the start.

Of course, this is only conceivable under the most ideal conditions, and with a certain god-like perspective.

Therefore, Lu Chen only hopes that humans on Earth can think far enough ahead, and he also hopes that humanity does not move in some inexplicably wrong directions out of misplaced cleverness.

Aside from that, ever since leaving the Solar System, they have wandered for an unknown amount of time, only hoping that humanity on Earth may continue to thrive for thousands of generations.

Please, avoid any suicidal civil wars that would lead to self-destruction!

Otherwise, even if they eventually find Earth, it would merely be finding a planet where people are extinct, an unavoidably sorrowful outcome!

Unbeknownst to them, they had lost track of how much time had passed.

Lu Chen and Wandering had no idea how far they had traveled; they only knew their search would continue.

"Big brother, look quickly, there’s a meteor shower ahead!"

At this moment, Wandering spotted a 500,000-meter-wide swarm of meteors speeding towards them, 0.5 astronomical units away.

Lu Chen said indifferently, "I see it. But why are you so excited? It’s not like we’ve found Earth!"

In the past, such a meteor swarm would have been a disaster for Lu Chen and Wandering. But now, both had grown significantly, and this mere meteor shower was hardly a concern!

"Big brother, think about it. A vast swarm of meteors like this suggests there might be an interstellar cloud nearby; what if there’s a Celestial Civilization?"

Wandering explained, "Then perhaps we could ask them for news about Earth!"

Lu Chen, with a hint of teasing, replied, "I didn’t expect you to have such a smart day!"

"Heh heh, of course. Who am I following? Big brother, I’ll go smash those meteors and clear the path for you!"

Even though Lu Chen’s current size made it unnecessary to do so, he didn’t stop Wandering, who had probably been itching to stretch its "muscles" for some time now.

Wandering then detached two 100,000-meter-wide Metal Ball avatars from its Metal Planet form with the mass of twenty planets and flew rapidly towards the meteor shower.

Before long, Wandering’s two avatars reached the front of the meteor shower.

"Boom, boom, boom..."

Simultaneously, Wandering spun its avatars rapidly through the controlled Intention, and the meteors, big and small, collided with the two colossal Metal Balls. The impacts looked fierce like artillery fire but failed to leave even a scratch. The spinning avatars shattered the meteors, flinging the debris away in the direction of the spin.

Ultimately, Wandering easily cleared the path ahead for Lu Chen using this method.

However, due to the sheer number of meteors, Wandering’s avatars couldn’t block them all, and some small meteors and shattered rock fragments still headed towards Constant Star Lu Chen.

Seeing this, Lu Chen made no move, allowing those materials to come close.

Within a certain range, the temperature began to rise. The small meteors quickly turned into red-hot Fire Stones, which, despite still having considerable momentum and trailing flames, continued towards the Constant Star. When they entered within a million meters of the Constant Star, the surrounding temperatures soared to thousands of degrees, melting the small meteors into liquid magma. As the temperatures reached hundreds of thousands of degrees, even the magma couldn’t hold up, instantly vaporizing into Carbon atoms, which were then blown away by powerful Constant Star Winds, not even nearing the atmosphere of the Constant Star itself.

And so, the meteor shower was handled quietly and efficiently.

Lu Chen and Wandering decided to change course and explore towards the origin of the meteor shower.

After a long period of travel, Lu Chen and Wandering saw shadows of interstellar material up ahead.

As they got closer, they were thrilled to find it was indeed a Hydrogen Cloud, with most of it being Hydrogen.

Just then, the previously dim and calm Hydrogen Cloud suddenly surged violently, as if it were a vicious beast of the Universe, with faint light emanating from it!