As the hours went by, the probes reached the first continents. There was definitely land on the planet.
"The first terrain has started to appear!", the Operator called out.
"As expected. This isn't an ocean world.", Dr. Helen said excitedly.
They watched as the terrain started growing slowly in front of their eyes. Soon, Valleys started to appear. The terrain wasn't smooth and there seem to be some sort of texture to the ground.
"Zoom to that point there.", Dr. Helen pointed towards a specific area. There seemed to be some kind of construct there. It wasn't really big but it was noticeable in the otherwise normal valley. The operator quickly zoomed in as the map became clearer.
"Is that..... a Tree?", Dr. Helen was first to pick up on the pattern of the construct. As a botanist, She knew how plants tend to develop. The pattern was clear as day to her.
The construct was standing tall, it had a main stem and had different lines branching off of it. It didn't seem like it had any leaves. But that didn't matter, The main thing was this was clearly a tree! There was a Tree on B1!
This was a ground breaking development! Having trees meant that the Planet had an Ecosystem! Where there's Flora, There could also be Fauna! This meant that the planet or potentially the Planets hosted Life! This was huge!
B1 was by no means a planet suitable for life. The planet's orbit made it so. Even during the cool down period, the Planet was still either really hot or really cold, Only for a brief period was it suitable for water to exist in it's liquid state. And That was crucial to life. As all lifeforms ever observed needed water to survive. Even many organisms that directly harvested their native star with with their own bodies for energy was made up of water inside.
So having water was crucial to bearing life for any planet. B1 only had a brief period during it's orbit between the two stars when water existed in it's liquid form. The rest of the time, either it was ice or water vapor. So it was quite a surprise to Dr. Helen and the rest on-board the bridge when they found a tree like structure on the planet. So there was a possibility that there was also fauna on the planet!
"Hawk Do you copy?", Dr. Helen quickly went over to her terminal and spoke.
"Hawk Copies"
"Release more probes. I want you to expand the area and scan the continent faster. I want to know if there are any forests on the planet!"
"Copy that."
Thousands of more Probes were launched from the Hawk. They all went towards the direction of the Continent. As far as they knew this was the only continent on the planet and building a map of it was crucial! They needed to know all the peaks and valleys that it held.
As B1 was quite a big planet! The continent should also be pretty big! But as the largest single continuous body was made up of water, this seemed unlikely.
"None of the Other probes have hit any terrain huh?", Dr. Helen asked the Operator.
"None. Some of our Probes have over heated and started to breakdown for some reason. More probes are being sent to investigate. We'll find out the reason soon."
"Good".
She moved over to her terminal and spoke.
"Yuki, Hawk any updates on the Preliminary analysis"
"Yes, The preliminary analysis is almost finished. Sending you the finished results", Yuki and Hawk transmitted their individual Reports of the planet.
Dr. Kita suddenly appeared in the bridge.
"Hey, is the preliminary analysis done?", He knew that the mission was well on it's way and was in progress.
"Yes, It's done. Just received the reports.", Dr. Helen said as she projected the reports in front of everyone. She began to describe the reports.
"From the initial analysis, The B1 seems to be a 'Mini-Neptune' class planet. It's gravitic field suggests that it has about 9.6 Earth masses. It's atmosphere is mostly covered by the thick cloud that we're calling the Cap, Little light penetrates the Cap. So the planet isn't much illuminated. The water in the planet's ocean is black in color. Light doesn't penetrate well through it. The reason for the black coloration of the water is the high amount of Carbon in the water. The Ocean surface water consists of 20% Carbon, 70% Water, 4.8% Sodium chloride, 2% ammonia, 2% sulfur and other trace elements."
"So the Ocean is black cause it's filled with carbon and it's also salty?", Kita amused.
"Yes, The Carbon level seems to have drop the deeper you go in, but at the surface level, the Carbon in the water makes it look black."
"What else have we figured out?"
"The atmosphere beneath the Cap is unbreathable for humans. Very high levels of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and ammonia. These 3 gasses make up about 74% of the atmosphere under the gap. Oxygen levels are 3.6% which makes it both toxic and unbreathable for us."
"Good that we don't plan on breathing in the air.", Kita said.
"There's also another thing", Dr. Helen said as she manipulated the map until it showed the could be tree found on the surface of the valley.
Kita froze when he noticed what she was showing him. He looked baffled at her.
"Is that….?", he couldn't finish his sentence.
"Yes, It could be a potential Tree."
"There's signs of life on this planet?"
"It seems so."
"Any fauna?"
"Not as far as our probes found. We're still looking for any forests."
"I don't understand. How is it possible? How can life grow in such hostile environment?"
"That's the biggest question."
"Does Dr. Kbom know?"
"Probably, He also has access to the Map. He probably has noticed the tree."
"This is…..", Kita couldn't find any words to describe his feeling right now. He was astonished and baffled at the same time.
"Exciting", Dr. Helen finished her sentence and gave a huge grin as she looked at him.