"Paul J. McAuley - How we Lost the Moon - A True Story by Frank W. Allen" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mcauley Paul J)

more than three billion years old, gravity and ceaseless micrometeorite
bombardment had smoothed or leveled every hill or crater ridge. With the
sun at the right angle, it was like riding across an infinite plain gentled by a
deep blanket of snow. We rested up twice at unmanned shelters, and had a
two-day layover at a roving Swedish selenology station which had squatted
down on the mare like a collection of tin cans. A week later, just after we
had picked up fresh supplies from a rocket lofted from Clavius, we felt our
first moonquake.

It was as if the rolligon had dropped over a curb, but there was no
curb. I was in the driving chair; Mike was asleep in the hammock. I told the
AI to stop, and looked out through the canopy at the 180-degree panorama.
The horizon was drawn closely all around. An ancient crater eroded by
three billion years of mi-crometeorite bombardment dished it to the north
and a few pockmarked boulders were sprinkled here and there, including a
fractured block as big as a house. Something skittered in the corner of my
eye тАФ a little rock rolling down the gentle five degree slope we were
climbing, plowing a meandering track in the dust. It ran out quite a way. The
rolligon swayed gently, from side to side. I found I was gripping the padded
arms of the chair so tightly my knuckles had turned white. Behind me, Mike
stirred in the hammock and sleepily asked what was up; at the same
moment, I saw the gas plume.

It was very faint, visible only because the dust it lofted caught the
sunlight. Gas plumes were not uncommon on the Moon, caused by pockets
of radon and other products of fission decay of unstable isotopes
overpressuring the crevices where they collected. Earth-based
astronomers sometimes glimpsed them when they tem-porarily obscured
surface features while dissipating into vacuum. This, though, was different,
more like a heat-driven geyser, venting steadily from a source below the
horizon.

I told the AI to drive toward it. Mike leaned beside me, scratching
himself through his suit of thermal underwear. He smelled strongly of old
sweat; we hadnтАЩt bathed properly since the interlude with the Swedes. I had
a sudden insight and said, тАЬHow hot is the black hole?тАЭ

тАЬOh, the smaller the black hole, the more fiercely it radiates. ItтАЩs a
simple inverse relationship. It was pretty hot to begin with, but itтАЩs been
getting cooler as it accretes mass. Hmm.тАЭ

тАЬIs it still hot enough to melt rock?тАЭ

MikeтАЩs eyes refocused. тАЬYou know, I think it must have been much
bigger than I first thought. Anyway, anything that gets close enough to it to
melt is already falling toward the event horizon. ThatтАЩs why there was no
trace of melting or burning when it dropped out of the reaction chamber.
But thereтАЩs also the heat generated by friction as stuff pours toward its
gravity well.тАЭ