Elite seems to be missing some Astronomical Phenomena - Lets get those in there!

[coojw]

The universe... our galaxy, is a beautiful place, a dangerous place. You can find both majestic and awe-inspiring beauty, or find chaotic destruction. As it stands now, the galaxy that elite has created has an ever changing political landscape, but but the galaxy as a whole feels a bit static in some cases. Some of the events that help make it a more chaotic AND beautiful place seem to be missing from our universe. I can't claim to have seen all 400 billion systems in the game, so there may in fact be some of these events yet to be discovered, however I list them as I feel it is important to be aware they exist, and should be represented in game!

Cosmic things and events that seem to be missing.

Things I know to be in game but tame by comparison with the real thing (underwhelming):
Blackholes that wreak gravitational havoc or that are actively consuming https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiATpTX4VJs
Neutron stars that wreak gravitational havoc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlTSXr4PfSg

Missing:
Super Novae (active or remnants) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pohG07w2JhM
Stellar fragments (neutron stars in free motion, rather than in an orbit)
Pulsars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LyWfBt6cxk
Quasars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJB7gbjiJKw
A more active stellar surface, including coronal mass ejection: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrnGi-q6iWc
Rogue Asteroids, Comets, & Asteroid impacts in action https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8L_JcXJO4c
Rogue Planets & Planetary Collision https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEIGjXbtQwY

Originally listed as missing, but found to exist in game:
Stellar Collision: https://youtu.be/IhLRxy6gMX0 - as evidenced late in the video, the actual impact may not be programmed in (no destruction)

There are MANY more strange phenomena within the galaxy and universe not covered here, and not represented in Elite Dangerous. I just ask that the community & developers alike, be aware of their existence, and hope to work toward their representation within the game to add variety and spice to life among the stars.

 

[Quantis Trap]

Once we get the feature of transporting people, it would be cool to see a system where a start was going super nova and there was a big Community Goal (CG) to evacuate the system before the start exploded!

 

[coojw]

i like the idea of doing community goals to avoid a catastrophe like that, sounds nice.

 

[Zeta Legion]

Of course Quasars aren't in the game.

A Quasar is a special type of radio galaxy, usually found towards the edge of the known universe.

Pulsars are technically in the game, they are just labeled as Neutron stars. It'd be cool if they had some sort of differentiation.

Nebulae, Neutron stars, or Black holes are all Supernova remains. An active Supernova would be far too rare (and dangerous).

 

[marnikos]

It is already mentioned that, at least comets, are coming soon...

 

[coojw]

Of course Quasars aren't in the game.

A Quasar is a special type of radio galaxy, usually found towards the edge of the known universe.

Pulsars are technically in the game, they are just labeled as Neutron stars. It'd be cool if they had some sort of differentiation.

Nebulae, Neutron stars, or Black holes are all Supernova remains. An active Supernova would be far too rare (and dangerous).

Pulsars don't exist in the game, they are rotating neutron stars emitting beams of energy. That isn't in the game. Neutron stars as they currently exist in the game are not very impressive, they should be a lot more dangerous, as well as black holes. Supernova aren't all that rare once you start expanding into the galaxy and universe at large. They are rare in our neck of the woods. And the CG idea from Quantis Trap is amazing, evacuating a system threatened by a super nova (or it could be another cosmic catastrophe)

 

[Sapyx]

Once we get the feature of transporting people, it would be cool to see a system where a start was going super nova and there was a big Community Goal (CG) to evacuate the system before the start exploded!

The problem here is one of matching reality with gameplay. Even with our primitive 21st century astronomy, we know the ages and stages of all the in-real-life stars within 500 LY of Sol that are big enough to go supernova and are likely to do so "soon" - here's a list of them on Wikipedia - and the list is very, very short. The only one inside the Bubble is IK Pegasi, also known in-game as HR 8210 - a pretty boring industrial system over in Delaine space, with no inhabited planets and a single Ocellus starport that could presumably be evacuated simply by re-attaching some engines. There are other stars we know about that "should blow up soon", such as Eta Carinae. But Eta Carinae is well outside of inhabited space so not a danger to anyone. Remember, space is big; light (and other radiation) is slow by comparison, so even if Eta Carinae (or Gamma Velorum or other stars on the Wikipedia list) does blow up in 3302, the shock wave won't pose a hazard to Human space for another couple of centuries.

There are other hazards, of course. Red giant stars can turn into white dwarfs, a process which, while not as spectacular as a supernova, will nevertheless sterilize any inhabited planets in the system. Read the system description for Arcturus and it hints at complacency from the locals that their star will not do this, despite the warnings. And in my Outback Planets thread I speculate that something like this might have happened not too long ago to the star formerly known as Quince.

So yes, an "evacuate a star system" CG or series of CGs is certainly scientifically plausible. What we lack right now to carry it out, as you say, are passenger compartments to carry the refugees in.

As for other "missing" phenomena, a biggie has to be stellar gravitational interaction with other nearby high-mass objects - stars, neutron stars, black holes, etc. Accretion discs, tidal bulging, active jets, that sort of thing.

I'm in the Beta Lyrae system right now. It's supposed to be one of the most spectacular star systems in known space: two stars "touching", exchanging matter in a vast spiral accretion disc. Talk about a disappointment. The system, of course, was famous in the FE2/FFE games as having a unique description: "Contact Binary". But it was equally famous for causing a game crash for anyone adventurous enough to actually try to visit it. FD have resolved the "how to depict contact binaries" problem the simple way: they've taken the second star away completely. Beta Lyrae, in-game, is not a binary star but a single boring old white sub-giant star.

"Rogue planets", however, are in-game, though not in a particularly exciting fashion. When out exploring have you ever noticed, on the system map, a large high-metal-content planet or moonless gas giant far, far further out than all the other planets in the system? Usually on a highly eccentric orbit way out of the orbital plane of the other planets? That's a "rogue planet". I've found several of them, including one on my way out here to Beta Lyrae.

 

[trollson]

Supernova aren't all that rare once you start expanding into the galaxy and universe at large. They are rare in our neck of the woods.

If by "our neck of the woods" you mean the Milky Way. Most supernovae are observed in other galaxies (where they often outshine the galaxy - as with the "current" ASASSN-15lh.

The most recent Supernova in the Milky Way, that we know of, exploded 140 years ago (from Earths perspective) was detected by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (2008). The Galaxy is big - but stars live a long time.

However, as you say, there are certainly lots of astrophysical phenomena - more frequent or static on a human timescale - which would be interesting to see modelled in Elite.

 

[Zeta Legion]

Pulsars don't exist in the game, they are rotating neutron stars emitting beams of energy. That isn't in the game. Neutron stars as they currently exist in the game are not very impressive, they should be a lot more dangerous, as well as black holes. Supernova aren't all that rare once you start expanding into the galaxy and universe at large. They are rare in our neck of the woods. And the CG idea from Quantis Trap is amazing, evacuating a system threatened by a super nova (or it could be another cosmic catastrophe)

All Pulsars are Neutron stars, but not all Neutron stars are Pulsars. Known Pulsars are represented in game by standard Neutron stars.

Supernovae originate only from extremely massive stars (Class O usually) you may have noticed there aren't any Class O stars anywhere close to inhabited space.

 

[coojw]

All Pulsars are Neutron stars, but not all Neutron stars are Pulsars.

I'm aware of this.

Known Pulsars are represented in game by standard Neutron stars.

Are you satisfied with a general representation of a pulsar with a standard neutron star? I'm not, I'd like pulsars to be represented graphically in the game as one would expect to see them in the wild.

Supernovae originate only from extremely massive stars (Class O usually) you may have noticed there aren't any Class O stars anywhere close to inhabited space.

I don't think it would be hard, or a big deal to make a supernova in game. It of course would be a rare event, but most certainly could happen.

 

[Janichsan]

I don't think it would be hard, or a big deal to make a supernova in game. It of course would be a rare event, but most certainly could happen.

They wouldn't be just "rare", they would be unique in the game's lifetime: the frequency of supernovae in the Milky Way is one per 50 years. And since this one supernova in half a century could be anywhere within a galaxy of 400 billion stars, the likelihood that you would notice anything is more than slim.

 

[Pazmino]

Cartwheel Galaxy - is it there?
And I was hoping to find this on my 1^st exploration trip but did not. I know, the universe is massive, but would have been nice.
.
"The brightest star is Alpha Sculptoris, an SX Arietis-type variable star with a spectral type B7IIIp and an apparent magnitude of 4.3.^{[URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sculptor_(constellation)#cite_note-5"][SIZE=2][5][/SIZE][/URL]} R Sculptoris is a red giant that has been found to be surrounded by spirals of matter likely ejected around 1800 years ago."

 

[coojw]

here is what was shared with me as far as pulsars go in elite
[video=youtube;PGHy-FCNTX8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGHy-FCNTX8[/video]

its not terrible, i like it actually. Would like to see a bit more material being ejected into space though.