Unforgettable journey to other planets

Part 3 – Chapter 33

The screen in the conference room presented information on the Sun’s activity: figures and graphs showed the situation in real time. The room was buzzing with activity. It was now the command center for all nations at once. Presidents and generals, ministers and heads of intelligence agencies came here. In the next room, a space was set up for press conferences, where representatives of various departments reported to the major news agencies.

It was decided that the focus should be on information about the Sun and the anomaly on it. About Voyager, they were silent for the time being because no one could link the information about the signal to what was going on with the Sun. In half an hour, the head of the European Space Agency had a big press conference. The world needed information.

Numbers flickered on the screen. In the background, people were discussing that weather services had begun to report changes in the weather in all regions of the globe. Jean-Jacques Dordain covered his face with his hands and repeated the same question to himself, “What is going on? Just one sensible thought.”

When he opened his eyes, a dazed assistant stood in front of him.

“What is it?” rubbing his forehead, Jean-Jacques Dordain asked.

“Monsieur,” said the assistant, “we have discovered something interesting,” he pointed to the laptop screen.

Monsieur Dordain picked up his glasses from the table and put them to his eyes, he gazed into the image.

“A new spot?” he suggested.

“Compared to this,” the assistant zoomed out of the image, “everything else on the Sun is a spot. It looks like the beginning of a plasma ejection or something. The temperature at that spot has almost doubled in a matter of minutes.”

“What a nonsense,” said Jean-Jacques Dordain, closing his eyes. “How many degrees is it now?”

The assistant swallowed.

“Twenty million Kelvin,” his eyes darted around. “But we’re checking the data, there might be an error somewhere.”

“No,” Monsieur Dordain said with a shake of his head, “it’s not an error.”

He had already turned his gaze to the big screen and made sure that the information was up to date. The indicators on the screen were growing before his eyes. The last time Monsieur Dordain had looked at the monitor it had a figure of ‘-20%’ next to the phrase “solar activity, changes”, now it had another even more frightening figure, ‘+24%’. There was chaos in the room, everyone was talking and ringing loudly. Jean-Jacques Dordain turned on his microphone.

“Ladies and gentlemen, your attention, please. As you can see, the Sun’s activity has changed dramatically.”

Someone shouted from his seat:

“South America and the USA are now seeing a northern lights: does anyone in this room have an explanation for this?”

Mr Dordain was approached by the ESA’s chief analyst. He shook hands with Jean-Jacques, sat down next to him and switched on the microphone.

“Good afternoon, my name is Claudio Sianti. I have an answer for you.”

The room froze.

“Right now, we are observing an area on the surface of the Sun with a surface temperature of about 20 million Kelvin,” he saw that there was no reaction. “That’s a lot. We are now witnessing the largest coronal mass ejection in history. So what are the consequences of that?” he thought for a moment. “Northern lights? Yes. And also disruption of electrical appliances, navigation equipment, radio signals.”

“That’s clear. What’s next? What should we prepare for?” shouted out one of the military men grudgingly. “Can the planet withstand this pressure?”

Dr Sianti nodded, understanding the question.

“Yes, I see your point. What does this mean in the long run, that is the question? Well,” he pondered his answer, “it threatens termination.”

The whole room let out a questioning exclamation, “Huh?” Some recoiled back, and some started pointing at the screen with their hands. Monsieur Dordain and Dr Sianti turned to the screen. The graph showing the signal activity from Voyager froze.

Jean-Jacques Dordain was whispering to a running assistant.

“Are you sure this is accurate?” he switched on the microphone and clarified. “Gentlemen, the signal has stopped broadcasting. No one can register it even close to the quadrant.”

“So, is it over?” someone from the audience asked.

“No,” answered Dr Scianti and pointed at the number of the absolute luminosity which had jumped up two points.