03:58 (Universal Time)
Thursday, December 13, 2317
Mapping section, A.M.S. KOSTROMA
In low orbit over the dwarf planet Eris
‘’Jennifer, come see this for a moment, please.’’
One of the geophysicists assisting the geomatics experts of the expedition in producing preliminary maps of Eris came at once to Heinrich Haussmann, who was contemplating on a wide viewing screen a part of Eris surface that had just been photographed and scanned. Jennifer Wolf saw at once that Haussmann was looking at a picture taken by a magnetometer. The geomatician then pointed to her a specific spot on the screen.
‘’Look at this anomaly there. What could cause such a localized magnetic signature? Up to now, we have seen nothing but ice and more ice.’’
‘’Is it on the surface or is it under the ice?’’
‘’Under the ice, if I can believe our scans.’’
‘’Hum, maybe it is a nickel-iron meteorite that struck the surface of Eris and then sank under the surface when the heat from the impact melted the top layer of ice. How big is it and how deep is it?’’
‘’How deep is difficult to say right now, but it is certainly big, with a diameter of at least a hundred meters if it is a solid body, or more if it is hollow.’’
‘’Wow! That would have caused quite an impact. No wonder it melted the surface ice and sank. Well, our surface study teams will have plenty of time to check it out in the next few days. Just make sure to note this anomaly for further study and that our maps reflect it.’’
‘’Understood, Jennifer.’’
14:25 (Universal Time)
Tuesday, December 18, 2317
Geological Survey Team Number Three
Surface of Eris
‘’Alright, I think that we won’t get any more meaningful new data from this spot, guys and girls. Let’s move to the next planned spot. Pack up the equipment and put it back in the shuttle.’’
As his geological surface crew started repacking their ground sensors and drilling equipment, Toru Ide made a last panoramic visual sweep of the area they had been scanning and drilling, eyeing the flat expanses of methane ice. They were now in their sixth day of work on the surface of Eris and what his team and the three other geological survey teams had found up to now had increased immensely their understanding of the dwarf planet. From multiple seismic sounding tests and ice drillings, they now knew that the crust of methane ice on the surface was only the first layer of a deep and complex planetary structure. On one part, the ice layers on top of the inner structure were about eighty kilometer thick and comprised in succession as you went down a thick surface layer of methane ice covered by a thin film of nitrogen and water ice, followed by intermixed layers of nitrogen ice, liquid methane and water ice. Below those layers, the geologists had found to their surprise a huge ocean of liquid water as deep as 400 kilometers. Just that had been enough to force a complete reappraisal of the inner structure and composition of Eris. But that had been only one part of the surprises. The seismic tests had revealed that under that deep ocean lay a thick layer of rock, the deeper parts of which were most probably molten into magma. Finally, the core of Eris seemed to be made of molten metal, which would explain the magnetic field surrounding the dwarf planet. The astrophysicists and geologists had been dumbstruck by those findings, with the next question being what kept that core molten? In view of the unexpected dept of the ice crust and water ocean, which should have lowered significantly the overall density of Eris, the core part had to be very dense, denser than a simple iron core similar to that of Earth, in order to provide for the calculated density of 2.52. Doctor Steven Barrie, one of the senior astronomers embarked as a passenger on the KOSTROMA, had then advanced the theory that the core was made, not of molten iron, but of molten heavy radioactive elements, possibly uranium mixed with heavy metals like iridium, thorium and tungsten. The intense heat produced by such a gigantic natural uranium reactor pile would be sufficient to melt the iron and rock around it and warm up the sub-surface water ocean, keeping it liquid and also creating volcanic vents that would from time to time erupt on the surface. The so-called ‘Barrie Model’ had now been discussed for more than a day between the scientists on the KOSTROMA and was rallying more and more believers to it as more data came in to support it. Since the very unusual orbit of Eris around the Sun meant that it probably had originated far away from the Solar System and had then been captured by the Sun as it passed by, millions or even billions of years ago, that hot uranium core could in turn mean that it was part of the leftover core from an exploded star, whose strong gravity had then attracted to it interstellar dust and ice particles as it traveled through the galaxy.
Repacking their equipment and putting it back in the waiting shuttle resting on the surface ice took less than fifty minutes for the seven men and women in spacesuits working with Ide. Their shuttle then flew off, skimming the flat, icy surface of Eris at low altitude while heading south. It again landed vertically on its skids twenty minutes later, near to one of the recorded geyser vents seen from orbit by the KOSTROMA. That spot also happened to be close to a magnetic anomaly attributed to a suspected nickel-iron meteorite sunk under the methane ice. Toru Ide was especially anxious to scan the geyser vent, hoping to find in it further clues to the nature of Eris’ interior. In that he was not disappointed, as a remark from the copilot of their shuttle just before landing attracted his attention.
‘’Hey! Our mapping radar is picking up a multitude of very small objects sprinkled around that geyser vent.’’
‘’Sprinkled? And how small are they, actually?’’
‘’Barely big enough to register on our radar when set on top definition, maybe the size of ping pong balls or less. They appear to be mostly on the surface, but some are also embedded at shallow depth in the ice.’’
‘’Hum! That sounds like they were spewed out of that vent, to be partially covered afterwards by ice ejected on the surface.’’
‘’Any ideas what they could be?’’ Asked the shuttle pilot to Ide, who was thoughtful for a moment.
‘’A few possibilities come to my mind, but I will wait until I can find some of those objects before speculating aloud. Whatever they are, they are liable to tell us more about the inside workings of Eris.’’
The pilot nodded his head at that, understanding his reluctance to speculate. They would anyway know soon enough once landed.
‘’I will take a couple minutes to do a slow overflight of the geyser area, to map with our radar where those objects lie, so that you can find some of them more easily.’’
‘’A good idea, Alex. Once on the surface, my team’s first job will be to use our portable ground penetrating radar sets to find some of those objects. If they indeed originate from the deep core of Eris, then their composition could tell us a lot about this dwarf planet. Mind you, just what we found out up to now more than justifies this expedition. There is enough frozen methane here to supply Humanity in hydrocarbons for millenniums, while this underground warm water ocean could well sustain some forms of living organisms.’’
Five minutes later, Toru got from the sensors operator of the shuttle a digital map of the area around the geyser head, which was inactive at the moment, as their craft landed smoothly on the icy surface of Eris. Returning in the aft section of the shuttle, he briefed his team members about what they were going to do, giving them at the same time electronic copies of his area map taken by high definition radar. Sealing their spacesuits, they then cycled through the airlock of the shuttle two at a time, with Toru going out first. With young Ying Lee holding and directing a ground penetrating radar set mounted on a small anti-gravity sled, Toru started walking towards the nearest location where a hard object had been detected around the geyser vent. Having to pass near that vent, he made a small detour to examine it and soon stood beside a long, narrow crack in the methane ice. Looking down in the two meter-wide crack, he was able to see what looked like an ice plug about thirty meters below the surface. Using his camera to film it for a moment, he then resumed his walk. He now could see what looked like a piece of icy rock barely forty meters away, right on the surface. That made him smile with satisfaction: he wouldn’t even need to dig through the ice to get it. That ‘rock’ turned out to be about the size of a small football and was covered by a thin layer of ice. Using a small pick to detach it cautiously from the surface ice, Toru then took it with both hands and lifted it up. He was surprised at once by how light it was for its size. Putting the rock under the radar sled, he let Ying Lee scan it in detail from up close. The young Chinese geologist nodded her head after looking at her imaging screen for a moment.
‘’I see what looks like a very hard object embedded in the middle of a softer shell. That object occupies only about twenty percent of the volume of this rock, which is made of volcanic, porous rock according to my integrated spectrometer. That volcanic rock’s density is less than that of water, which would explain why this rock could float all the way to the surface to be ejected by this geyser.’’
Those words brought more excitement to Toru, who looked himself at the imaging screen.
‘’A volcanic rock? Then, this could be coming all the way from the central, molten core of Eris. Whatever is embedded inside could give us the composition of that core. This could be a great find indeed.’’
Looking back at his other team members, now all out of the shuttle, he could see that a pair of them had also found another rock and was busy cutting it out of the ice. He thus spoke in his helmet radio microphone.
‘’Richard, this is Toru. I found one rock made of light volcanic material surrounding a small, harder object. It may have come all the way from the central core of Eris. What do you have?’’
‘’Wait one! I am going to scan it now… Yup! I also have some kind of nugget embedded in porous volcanic rock.’’
‘’Then, keep it intact for later study on the KOSTROMA. The same goes for any further rocks we find. On my part, I am going to break open the rock I have, to see what’s inside.’’
‘’Understood!’’
Retrieving the rock from under the radar sled, Toru put it flat on the surface ice and, cautiously using his pick, started breaking away the crust of volcanic rock surrounding the central object while watched by a curious Ying Lee. That porous rock proved quite easy to break and he soon held in one hand a sort of crystal the size of a golf ball. It had a faint orange tint to it, something that triggered a thought in his mind: he had seen in the past uranium glass, which had hues of orange-red to lemon yellow. If this was indeed uranium glass, then it would all but prove the ‘Barrie Model’ about the core of Eris being heated by a mass of uranium. With his heart beating faster now, Toru put the crystal inside the spectrometer analyzer that was part of the sled and ran a scan on it. The results made his eyes and those of Ying bulge from surprise.
‘’Pure carbon with traces of uranium and thorium?’’ Said Ying. ‘’And a density of about 3.5? Could this be…’’
‘’A rough diamond? Yes, Ying! It actually makes sense and is another indication that this indeed comes from deep in the hot core of Eris. The conditions there would be right to form such diamonds, while the traces of uranium and thorium would validate the theory about the core being made of radioactive elements. This is indeed a very important find.’’
The young female geologist took the diamond from inside the spectrometer and held it in the light from her helmet-mounted lamp, making it shine a light orange color.
‘’Once cut properly, this could make a truly magnificent diamond, Toru.’’
‘’True! If we consider the number of ‘rocks’ we have detected around this vent and the number of vents we saw from orbit, then we may have on Eris a cheap, abundant source of diamonds, something that would certainly please many back on Callisto.’’
Ying then smiled to him, a tempting thought going through her mind.
‘’Do you think that we could claim a finder’s fee and keep a few diamonds for ourselves?’’
Toru grinned and wiggled a finger at her.
‘’Nice try, Ying! The captain will however be the one to decide how those diamonds will be used. Now, let me send a preliminary report about this back to the KOSTROMA: this is big.’’
Making his report and answering the avalanche of questions that it triggered from the scientists aboard the KOSTROMA took the next ten minutes, by which time Toru’s team had collected another six ‘rocks’, all of which turned out to be diamonds embedded in volcanic rock. Letting six of his team mates continue collecting diamonds, Toru returned to the geyser vent with Ying and her radar sled, where he studied the crevasse in detail, mapping its inside with radar. Those scans revealed more diamonds and volcanic rocks embedded in the ice walls of the vent. After nearly one hour of scanning the vent, Toru decided that they had enough data about it for the moment: a more thorough study would need a deep drilling rig, something that would wait another day. Looking at the map made of the area, Toru pointed towards the Northwest for the benefit of Ying.
‘’We will let the others continue picking rocks on the surface. In the meantime, we will go see that magnetic anomaly. If it is indeed a nickel-iron meteorite that slammed into Eris eons ago, then it would constitute by itself a most interesting subject of study.’’
‘’I’m with you!’’ Replied Ying, pushing her radar sled in the direction shown by Toru and following three steps behind him. They bounced forward in small, cautious hops in the light gravity of Eris, which was only eight percent that of Earth. With the slippery ice surface, there was a real risk of slipping and falling, possibly damaging or compromising the integrity of their spacesuits. In the nearly non-existent atmosphere of Eris, made of trace vapors of methane and nitrogen, and the actual ambient temperature of minus 224 degrees Celsius, this would result in death within a minute, so Toru went on cautiously, taking fifteen minutes to arrive over the spot of the recorded magnetic anomaly. One reading from his portable magnetometer confirmed to him that he was over the right spot.
‘’Alright, Ying, activate your radar and start a grid pattern coverage. I will follow beside you and watch the readings at the same time.’’
‘’Got it!’’
She barely had time to switch on her radar and have a first look at the imaging screen before she hesitated, unsure of what she was looking at.
‘’Uh, that meteorite is really big, Toru, but it also has a weird shape.’’
Looking as well at the screen, Toru also felt puzzlement: the object embedded deep into the methane ice was indeed big, with a diameter of about 300 meters, but its shape was nothing like any meteorite or asteroid he had seen before. From the lateral radar view he had of it, it looked like a giant saucer with a thickness of seventy meters which was connected to a short, cylindrical base about 150 meters in diameter and 200 meters in length. For a long moment his mind refused to recognize the object for what it was, while his heart accelerated wildly. Cold sweat broke on his forehead as he finally was able to speak.
‘’That’s not a meteorite or an asteroid: THAT’S A SPACESHIP!’’