The Helium Hunt: Tracking those elusive Helium-rich Gas Giants

Redfox

Redfox
Cmdr Kitty259 said:
I did this exact thing on my way back from the bubble... the first 3 systems were just lone stars, however the 4th one (Plaa Aescs OS-T e3-4) had 3 Helium-Rich Gas Giants and they are all mine! Sadly I can't add them to EDSM because I am a XB1 player :(

Also there were 3 other Gas Giants in the system, 2 Class IVs and a Class III, which makes sense given the He% of the Helium-Rich Giants (32.7%).

So it's absolutely true that they will spawn in systems with the same sub-sector name and same mass code. However I see no real pattern in the sub-sectors, so it's really hard to tell how exactly the Galactic forge calculates these. I didn't explore anymore systems however, but whoever wants to do it next in that sub-sector try with e3-5 and so on! Maybe you'll find some too!

They were exactly what I was looking for to finish off my stellar bodies collection! I have now discovered at least one or one variant of each type of stellar body which is a really satisfying accomplishment! I'm glad I found this forum, it really helped me find what I was looking for, thank you commanders! o7
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Right on, CMDR! :)[up]
 

Spaceman Si

Spaceman Si
I was out in the NGC 1817 cluster last month - there were "loads" of them out there. I'm not at the PC with my logs on right now, but I can find out how many I netted later on. I was coming across systems with 4-7 HRGGs in them quite frequently.
 

Majkl

Majkl
Hi,

recetly I found a system with 12 helium-rich gas giants present. All of them were 66.7% nitrogen + 33.3% helium.
The system is named Pyramoe LX-T e3-3 and it's mapped on EDSM: https://www.edsm.net/en/system/id/32990132/name/Pyramoe+LX-T+e3-3. It was already discovered, though only some bodies DSS'd.

Screenshot_0098.jpg

I also have notes from my travels years ago which contain positions of around 20 HRGGs, mostly random systems, except one containing 8 HRGGs - let me know if you are interested.

o7
 

GrandAdmiralThrawn

GrandAdmiralThrawn
Having visited nearly 13.000 systems in my very young explorer career, I've only managed to find two HRGGs. They were in the same system in the Outer Arm: [Blaea Eun FF-Y d1-2]. I never started looking for them specifically though, it's just a lucky find.

Breakdown of objects by star and planet, "n.a." meaning "no atmosphere", gas giants have 31.14% of He in their atmospheres, the rest being H2:
  • Class G yellow-white primary star
    • A A: Asteroid belt (metal-rich)
    • A 1: Helium-rich gas giant (ringed: rocky, metal-rich)
      • A 1 a: Rocky body (atmosphere: pure, hot, thick H2O)
      • A 1 b: Rocky body (n.a.)
      • A 1 c: Rocky body (n.a.)
    • A 2: High metal content world (atmosphere: hot, thick CO2 with traces of N2 and SO2, ringed: metal-rich, terraforming candidate)
      • A 2 a: Rocky body (n.a.)
    • A 3: Helium-rich gas giant (ringed: rocky)
      • A 3 a: Rocky body (n.a.)
      • A 3 b: Rocky body (atmosphere: SO2 with traces of silicates and O2)
      • A 3 c: Rocky body (n.a.)
      • A 3 d: Rocky body (n.a.)
    • A 4: Class II gas giant (ringed: metal-rich)
      • A 4 a: Rocky body (n.a.)
    • A 5: Class II gas giant (ringed: metal-rich, rocky)
      • A 5 a: Rocky body (atmosphere: SO2 with traces of silicates and O2)
      • A 5 b: Rocky body (n.a.)
    • A 6: Class III gas giant (ringed: rocky, rocky)
      • A 6 a: Rocky body (n.a.)
      • A 6 b: Rocky body (atmosphere: pure, thin NH3)
      • A 6 c: Rocky body (atmosphere: pure, thin NH3)
      • A 6 d: Rocky body (n.a.)
      • A 6 e: Rocky body (n.a.)
      • A 6 f: Rocky body (atmosphere: pure, thin CO2)
        • A 6 f a: Rocky body (atmosphere: CO2 with traces of NH3)
      • A 6 g: Rocky body (atmosphere: thin CO2 with traces of SO2)
    • A 7: Class III gas giant (ringed: rocky)
      • A 7 a: Rocky body (n.a.)
      • A 7 b: Rocky body (n.a.)
      • A 7 c: Rocky body (n.a.)
      • A 7 d: Rocky body (n.a.)
      • A 7 e: Rocky body (atmosphere: pure, thin CO2)
      • A 7 f: Rocky body (atmosphere: thin CO2 with traces of SO2)
      • A 7 g: Rocky body (atmosphere: thin CO2 with traces of SO2)
      • A 7 h: Rocky body (atmosphere: thin CO2 with traces of SO2)
    • A 8: Class III gas giant (ringed: rocky, metal-rich)
      • A 8 a: Rocky body (n.a.)
      • A 8 b: Rocky body (n.a.)
      • A 8 c: Rocky body (atmosphere: pure, thin CO2)
      • A 8 d: Rocky ice world (n.a.)
    • A 9: Water giant (atmosphere: H2O with traces of NH3 and CH4)
    • A 10: Water giant (atmosphere: H2O with traces of NH3 and CH4, ringed: icy)
  • Class M red dwarf secondary star
    • B A: Asteroid belt (metal-rich)
    • B 1: Class I gas giant
    • B 2: Gas giant with water-based life (ringed: metal-rich, icy)
    • B 3: Class I gas giant (ringed: metal-rich, icy)
    • B 4: Class I gas giant (ringed: rocky, icy)
      • B 4 a: Icy body (n.a.)
    • B 5: Icy body (atmosphere: He with 8.43% of H2 and traces of Ne, ringed: icy)
      • B 5 a: Icy body (n.a.)
      • B 5 b: Icy body (n.a.)
      • B 5 c: Icy body (n.a.)
      • B 5 d: Icy body (n.a.)
      • B 5 e: Icy body (n.a.)
Why post such a detailed list, when you can get everything from EDSM anyway? Because I was bored and had nothing better to do at the moment. ;)
 

Caramel Clown

Caramel Clown
Do these gas giants have their own description and frequency on FSS, or those are just any class gas giants with certain helium content? I've seen dozens upon dozens of water giants, but no helium giants. Am I not looking the right way?)
 

GrandAdmiralThrawn

GrandAdmiralThrawn
As far as I can remember, they have their own spectral lines on the FSS, yes. It should be even further right of the class V gas giants, almost at the end of the spectrum.
 

Redfox

Redfox
GrandAdmiralThrawn said:
gas giants have 31.14% of He in their atmospheres
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That system has 11 GG, of which 2 are HRGG, meaning ~18% are HRGG. Still fits quite well with the expected percentages from the OP:
Ru7WOwP.png
GrandAdmiralThrawn said:
As far as I can remember, they have their own spectral lines on the FSS, yes. It should be even further right of the class V gas giants, almost at the end of the spectrum.
Click to expand...
Correct, they are near the last main tick on the right of the spectrum. Reference diagram for the frequency array: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/frequency-array-diagram.453623/
 

BradHann

BradHann
Given that visually they don't appear to be any different from other GGs, I'd be interested to know if I missed any before the FSS was introduced, since I didn't bother flying all the way over to distant objects in order to scan them unless they looked interesting.
 

Caramel Clown

Caramel Clown
Well, what do you know. I was wondering why I've never found any, and tonight I find 3 of them in 1 system. And they do look a bit different to other giants, at the very least some of them have slightly unique look. Notice how first and last one have a very distinctive equatorial band. Slightly less contrasting on the first one, but still visible.
2w0dfdj.png
 

Zieman

Zieman
BradHann said:
Given that visually they don't appear to be any different from other GGs, I'd be interested to know if I missed any before the FSS was introduced, since I didn't bother flying all the way over to distant objects in order to scan them unless they looked interesting.
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If you didn't check the HUD holo, you may well have missed some.
 

Caramel Clown

Caramel Clown
According to EDSM there are Helium-rich gas giants, and there are Helium gas giants. Apparently only 12 have been found vs over 27 thousand of Helium-rich ones. Anybody has any info on those? Apparently they are over 90% helium.
 

Zieman

Zieman
The one procedurally generated Helium Giant I know of (Ooch Chrea US-U d2-21 2) has 99.9% Nitrogen and 0.01% Helium in its atmosphere...

IIRC the rest are in one hand placed system, Chi Herculis (?).
 

MaultierColt308

M
So far I came across 4 HRGG until now, 3 of them being in an area just north of the VEGNUE nebula. Came across the 4th one yesterday, this is the one you see in the picture below.
Elite Dangerous Core

The GGs in that system (coords in the bottom left corner) have 31.2% helium in their atmospheres. But I have to admit that I didn't really pay attention to the HRGGs until now, just considered them as cool finds (what they definitely are :D).
 

Caldomir

C
4xHRGGs in system Xothue ZL-C c29-0 with 33.1% He. Unfortunately, I just discovered this thread only after passing further from the system, so didn't think of staying and surveying the entire boxel even tho after over 7k first discovered systems, these were the first ever first dicovered HRGGs for me.
 

MaultierColt308

M
I am back with a small report (Coords will be given as soon as I reach Colonia, some pictures later when I am on my PC (posting on my mobile right now)): On my way back to Colonia, I stumbled upon a mass code D system, whose GGs had >31% helium in their atmospheres. So I decided to cartograph the whole boxel...

EDIT: Updated, corrected mistakes after/while looking at my Excel sheet: :)

Results:
  • the mean He amount in a GGs atmosphere was at 31,3% for that boxel, with 29,6% (there even was one HRGG in such a system!) being the lowest and 33% being the highest value for a system.
  • In 331 systems scanned and partly cartographed (you know, HRGGs and other shinies), I found a total of 130 HRGGs, with 5 HRGGs being the biggest number for one system.
  • one HRGG showed a "special colour code".
  • Most HRGGs I found resembled Class II and IV GGs (as seen by their colours and mean temperatures). Most (if not all) Class I resemblers were brown, the few Class III resemblers all (except for one) had the "brown-teal-ish Class III" colour code. Only one HRGG found had a mean temperature of >1400 K, therefore being a HR Class V.
  • In 1 system, the only planet in the system was a HRGG. It also had the highest orbital eccentricity of all HRGGs, being at 0,8178
  • 12 HRGGs, mostly Class II resemblers, were found being moons to T/Y dwarves in their system.

Further statistics:

  • I found a total of 66 terrestrial planets in the boxel, 53 WWs, 9 AWs and 4 ELWs. Some of them (even 2 of the ELWs) were found in systems containing HRGGs.
  • the largest systems contained 90 (personal record) and 84 bodies. Both had HRGGs (1 for the 90 body system, 5 in the 84 body system). Both also had one AW and Water Giant each.
  • On my search for the HRGGs, I stumbled across 3 trojans, but none of them in a HRGG system.
Update part 2: Some of the HRGGs in spotlight:

This is the HR Class III GG with the unique color code. It is already posted in the Show us your interesting discoveries! thread (post #597).
Elite Dangerous Core

grey-daeb8382a3b0c52a5f71f8aa439e4226.gif
dd736311-3af4-4366-a74d-1a2e608a247f.PNG

The second one is the lonely HRGG with the highest orbital eccentricity of all 130, coming in at 0.8178. Here is it's orrery view.

b3aed4d8-db8e-4af3-9e88-d80ba2acd5e2.PNG

and the third one was more common than the others. It looks more like a brighter-brown-reddish Class IV.

Elite Dangerous Core

One of the 12 HRGG moons in the map of its host system. Unlike most of its brothers, it resembles a Class I GG.

56f520d8-7714-4512-bd02-78e9766b5411.PNG
 

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Frescher

Frescher
Hi, All

Did some galactic mapping using data from EDAstro and EDSM (GIS Major, so I was curious to see if there was a large-scale distribution of helium content).

Found a pretty interesting pattern that confirmed my suspicions -- HRGGs are almost overwhelmingly found in the central parts of galactic arms, and are entirely absent from the galactic core (as you pointed out). Seems to be related to regions with high star formation, but I'm not an astronomy expert so I can't say much about populations.

Attached is a nice overlay map I've made of the average % Helium in a given 250-Ly square.


Using this data, I traveled around the Orion-Cygnus Arm just west of Colonia. Found a boxel (Leamoi FC-J D10) with a fairly high %He by looking at a nearby HRGG discovered by another CMDR. Profanity filter is preventing me from giving their name ;)

Anyways, I scanned all 185 d-mass systems, yielding a total of ~330 HRGGs. Interesting.

I'm on my way to mapping the boundary between the core and regions hospitable to HRGGs, on the northern side of the Empyrean Straits.

As for prediction, it doesn't seem like there is much correlation between the actual mass code (xx-x a/b/c/d/etc.) and distribution, other than that HRGGs are far more likely to be found around F-Class stars in D-mass systems. My intuition is to say that it is random; there seems to be a good range of letter combinations within the data. This might not be an artifact of sampling, either, which is interesting -- most scanned stars in EDSM are lower-mass G- and M-Class stars. However, most CMDRs filter out non-main sequence stars, and I know I've filtered everything but F and G to boost my ELW chances, so it's entirely likely that the HRGGs found by chance are only due to sampling bias. Looking at the Leamoi FC-J area, again F-Class are more likely to hold an HRGG, but I'll have to wait until the middle of the month for data from EDAstro to update before I try to make any sort of statistical analysis.

Hopefully my methodology is up to par, but please let me know if there are any glaring flaws in the way I'm looking at this.

I'm new to the forums, so forgive my formating! I've been following this thread for a while now and wanted to offer some contributions. I'm currently working on a model of the %He for a given boxel, but it's a ton of data so it may be some time before I find anything meaningful.

Cheers and o7
CMDR Frescher
 

MaultierColt308

M
Now that I reached Colonia and handed my data in, I can say that the boxel I was in was the Hypuejio GT-F D12-xxx boxel. The sys map pictures in my report above will therefore be edited to the "uncensored" originals :)
 
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