Chapter 11: The Ghaiya Probe
Jacob named the probe that was sent out into deep space after Ghymora's daughter, who Emilia and her had named Ghaiya. This probe, with the many advancements in satellite and telescope technology, had far greater imaging and deep space detection capabilities compared to the Voyager probes launched in the 70's.
It took the Ghaiya Probe just over three months to pass beyond the orbit of Mars. All the while it kept its detection systems pointed at one area of the cosmos. Working at SETI, monitoring this probe along with the many other satellites was my primary duty. Jacob also checked in quite a bit, his interests were primarily set on the probe's discoveries.
"How much further do you think it will need to go?" I asked Jacob one day while we sat together looking over the pictures and monitoring the data it had collected so far.
"It's hard to say. The Voyager 2 took that picture when it was out near Jupiter. It's possible that it may need to go just as far to see."
"Damn, it could take another half a year to get that far." I answered with the slightest hint of doubt in my voice.
"There's no rush, Ghymora was right. I know it." He said with certainty. Though I wondered if he just wanted her to be right. "The probe will find it eventually." He replied adamantly and walked out the door.
One rainy day, months after the probe had set off on its long journey, I walked into my temporary office, in a trailer outside of the construction site where the new SETI headquarters was being built. I was usually alone there. We had a number of other employees that were working remotely until the new building was complete. I basically just came in to sit in my office during the day, periodically checking the operating system, and feeding any new data to the other analysts to be fact checked. This was all remedial work that could easily be done without me, but it was nice to be involved. I did enjoy seeing the numerous celestial bodies our satellite telescopes were detecting. Most were relatively small, but a few had been nearly as big as the rock that hit Seoul, though none of them were headed anywhere near Earth.
During my days I used the significant free time I had to scour through new investment properties, looking for deals. Every once in a while, I'd hear a ping coming from the Teebler Array's detection system and I'd check out what we found. I was just about to walk out the door when I heard a ping. I thought about taking off and checking back in tomorrow to see what it was. We got a few of these every day and they weren't usually of any significance. But another ping came right after the first, just before I shut the door all the way, and then I heard another. "That's not normal," I thought to myself.
Out of curiosity, I made my way back over to the computer screen. The pings that had stopped, but the message I was seeing now was different than any I had seen before. The Earth and moon-orbiting satellites all had basic names, like T-1 through T-13, and their names had appeared at the top of the message when detecting a new object. This time, for the first time, the message came from the Ghaiya probe. I jumped into my desk chair and expanded the window that had not at first included any pictures. And when I did, I saw it. The very thing Jacob had been searching for, a small red dot. The star that Ghymora had been so adamant existed, was there.
Two, and then three more pings sounded off just then, and there as I sat in front of the screen. The Ghaiya probe was detecting more objects. The data was not fully compiled yet, so it was hard to tell but these seemed to be planets. Planets around a red dwarf star. A new solar system, right in our backyard.
Next thing we knew outer space was once again the only thing people were talking about, but this time the name Teebler went hand in hand with the discovery. Jacob meant to set things straight.
"I didn't discover this star, nor the planets that orbit it." He said on live TV, screen timing from his home office. He then held up a neatly bound stack of paper and brought it close to the camera.
"My friend Ghymora wrote this thesis paper at MIT back in 2015. I've made sure it has become public record. Though she may not have been the first to propose the existence of a sister star to our Sun, she was the first to propose the precise whereabouts of this red dwarf, as well as the rogue planet that had been hiding it from our view. We built the Ghaiya probe to find this star for her, a promise I made before she died. I also made another promise, that I would have the star named after her when it was finally found. . . So, from this day forth this new star, the closest star to our Sun by three lightyears will be named Ghymora."
There was no pushback from the scientific community in even the slightest on this decision. After all, Teebler Corp. was solely responsible for its discovery, based on Ghymora's proposal and gathered data. And right now, through the gathered images from the Ghaiya probe, this was the only way of learning more about this new star and the planets that surrounded it.
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