Here's something that I haven't seen mentioned in neither the galactic mapping project, nor on the list of real nebulae: the G2 Dust Cloud. It's a rather unique stellar feature that's approximately 28000 ly from Sol, on the far side of Sagittarius A*. In real life, it's better known as the G2 gas cloud, or simply as "G2", as its exact nature is still somewhat uncertain. It was first thought to be a dusty gas cloud that was on an accretion course to Sag A*, but to most everyone's surprise, in 2014 it was revealed to have actually survived the encounter. As far as I know, the two most likely theories are that it's still a cloud, but we're seeing it at an odd angle; the other is that it's actually a pair of binary stars that have since merged together.
But in Elite, we do know what Frontier chose to represent it with: it's a faint dark red nebula that's some 2000 ly away from the core. That would make it the farthest non-procedural nebula from Sol, and possibly the closest large (and non-procedural) nebula to Sagittarius A* too. As it's so small and faint, finding it without using the galaxy map's search function would be next to impossible: even from 80 ly away, I could barely make it out by eye. (It's little wonder that it popped up on the forums only once, with one of its systems mentioned in passing by CMDR Mohingan some three months ago.) Thankfully, due to the extreme star density in the area, there are lots of systems both around and in the nebula, so you can get close looks at it from all kinds of angles. Up close, it looks as if the core was splattered with dark stains of blood - although even then, you'll probably want to be on the dark side of a planet to see all the details.
If you're in the area, I recommend visiting the cloud: after all, it's not far from the biggest attraction in the galaxy. Back when I was there, I saw the tags of only a handful of Commanders, and the area was mostly unexplored. I did survey 214 systems, but since the sector is in the core, there are thousands of stars to explore. And the small red nebula amidst the core's sea of stars is certainly a sight that you won't see elsewhere.
But in Elite, we do know what Frontier chose to represent it with: it's a faint dark red nebula that's some 2000 ly away from the core. That would make it the farthest non-procedural nebula from Sol, and possibly the closest large (and non-procedural) nebula to Sagittarius A* too. As it's so small and faint, finding it without using the galaxy map's search function would be next to impossible: even from 80 ly away, I could barely make it out by eye. (It's little wonder that it popped up on the forums only once, with one of its systems mentioned in passing by CMDR Mohingan some three months ago.) Thankfully, due to the extreme star density in the area, there are lots of systems both around and in the nebula, so you can get close looks at it from all kinds of angles. Up close, it looks as if the core was splattered with dark stains of blood - although even then, you'll probably want to be on the dark side of a planet to see all the details.
If you're in the area, I recommend visiting the cloud: after all, it's not far from the biggest attraction in the galaxy. Back when I was there, I saw the tags of only a handful of Commanders, and the area was mostly unexplored. I did survey 214 systems, but since the sector is in the core, there are thousands of stars to explore. And the small red nebula amidst the core's sea of stars is certainly a sight that you won't see elsewhere.
Last edited:
