Chapter 359 Betelgeuse collapses, black hole

Betelgeuse.

Also called Alpha Orionis.

Its mass is about 13.1 solar masses.

This is not too big in the eyes of the current Federation. Whether it is some of the massive main sequence stars discovered by the Federation or Betelgeuse 1, 2, and 3 in Orion, they are better choices.

But the reason why Betelgeuse was chosen is because it is close enough.

The other massive stars are twice as far away, which is a burden for the transmission of energy. The Federation could not stretch its star field too long at that time.

Naturally, more resources can be obtained after the star field is long, but when facing the enemy's attack, the warships are completely unable to provide short-term support.

1,000 light years means that it will take thousands of years to provide support, which is too long.

And for example, the existing black hole Gaia BH1 is about 1,500 light years away, and the Federation did not choose to use it.

Only now, Yan Xia and Ella have received the news that peace will appear in the third dimension, and they plan to extend in the direction of Gaia BH1, after all, it is a black hole with 10 times the mass of the sun.

Developing Betelgeuse before is definitely a better choice.

And the collapse plan for Betelgeuse has already begun before, so it is naturally impossible to let the investment go to waste.

It only needs Betelgeuse to collapse into a black hole.

Then the Federation can do a lot of things, and the Orion Nebula can be fully controlled, and Betelgeuse 1, 2, and 3 can also carry out the same collapse plan.

At that time, the Federation can declare that it has left the stellar civilization and entered the black hole civilization stage.

At this time, Betelgeuse has changed a lot compared to its original state.

First of all, it has changed from a single star system to a multi-star system, and it is not a simple multi-star system. The most common multi-star system in the universe is a binary star system, followed by a three-star system to a five-star system, and at this time Betelgeuse has become a seventeen-star system.

Ella captured the surrounding stars and dragged them into the orbit of Betelgeuse. This star system was so complex that Ella could not maintain their balance for a long time.

In fact, if it was not possible to add only 17 stars, Ella's ultimate goal would be 30 stars.

Because the additional 16 stars actually only have the mass of 6 suns, and after merging with Betelgeuse, it is less than 20 solar masses.

The possibility of the birth of a black hole is still not too high.

So Ella built several huge gravitational devices on the periphery of the star system. They were like satellite pot covers, and they were now aimed at the central Betelgeuse.

"It's about to start!"

On a warship on the periphery of the star system, some people were watching all this nervously.

They have been fighting here for more than 30,000 years for this moment to come, and now, it's finally about to start.

"Press it, there's no need to wait any longer."

Everyone's heart was lifted up, and they even felt that they couldn't breathe.

The chief engineer in the lead pressed a button.

There was no so-called sense of ceremony.

The gravitational device began to disturb the gravity inside the star system, destroying any so-called conservation of angular momentum, and 16 stars fell towards Betelgeuse in a rotation.

The falling process lasted for 2 years, and finally the first star hit Betelgeuse.

Betelgeuse itself is a red supergiant, it has entered the end of the star, it is too big, with a diameter of a terrifying 1.283 billion kilometers, and the star fell into its corona and disappeared directly, just like throwing a stone into the lake.

Later, more stars entered its corona and merged with it.

About 16 days later, the brightness of Betelgeuse suddenly increased by 200,000 times, reaching 20 billion times the brightness of the sun, and this peak only lasted for a moment, and then the brightness instantly dropped to about 500,000 times the brightness of the sun, tending to normal.

Then, the second round of brightness burst appeared again, and the brightness of Betelgeuse soared to 6 billion times the brightness of the sun. Although it was not as violent as the first time, it was more persistent this time, lasting a full 7 seconds.

When the brightness decreased this time, the entire Betelgeuse expanded dramatically. Its radius increased by 3% in a short period of time, and it is still increasing.

This time the brightness was maintained at about 2 million times the brightness of the sun, and then there were several brightness changes, but all below 100 million times the brightness of the sun.

"Something is wrong. If this continues, Betelgeuse will throw away most of its mass. After these masses are ejected, they can only collapse into a neutron star."

The people on the battleship began to calculate urgently, adjust the parameters of the gravitational device, and then turn on the gravitational binding.

The energy consumed by the gravitational binding this time is the energy reserve of the entire federation for 1,100 years.

The expanding Betelgeuse stopped expanding instantly and began to shrink inward.

But this is definitely not the time to celebrate.

A large amount of matter was compressed to the extreme, but the center of the star did not begin to collapse, which caused the energy contracted by gravity to begin to offset, and the pressure inside the star soared.

And 182 hours later, the star suddenly stopped contracting and expanded again.

"Hiss, start the gravitational device again!" When someone shouted this, everyone looked at him.

"Captain, you forgot that our energy can only support one gravitational contraction."

The captain's heart was not relieved, but he grew wings and flew up.

"That's it!"

Just when everyone's mood fell to the bottom, the expansion of the star showed signs of slowing down.

"Slowing down!"

"Could it be..."

Has the interior of the star begun to collapse?

But I don't know if this collapse has formed a black hole. If not, then the external matter will escape the star's gravity, and these substances will be directly wasted.

And if it is a black hole...

"Rapid contraction, so fast!"

In just less than 20 seconds, the expansion turned into contraction, and the speed of contraction was beyond imagination.

At the moment when the words "so fast" were said, most of the originally expanded matter collapsed directly into the core, and it took less than 2 seconds before and after, which can be said to be completed instantly.

At this time, the matter that was not absorbed by Betelgeuse quickly escaped and hit the battleship, and the battleship's screen was snow-white.

The battleship turned on the shield to isolate all the matter, but it still saw white light.

After waiting for almost 7 hours, the light gradually dimmed.

At this time, the front of the battleship has become dark. No matter can escape from it. The black hole is like taking a piece of the universe away. It cannot be described because it has nothing.

Only the accretion disk rotating around it is emitting light, telling that it really exists.

"Black hole!"

"We've done it!"

Everyone in the battleship hugged and cried.

They have accomplished an amazing feat.