Can planets have phantom rings?

[DjVortex]

Check the ring info for this planet:

According to the system info, the planet has two rings, one of a rather normal size, and another that's absolutely gigantic. The inner radius of this second ring is 1091630 km = 3.64 ls, and the outer radius is 2743295 km = 9.15 ls.

But the thing is, I can't find this ring. I'm flying very slowly between those two distances, on the exact plane of the other ring, and there's nothing. Just empty space. I have checked close to this supposed inner radius, close to the supposed outer radius, and in-between, and there's nothing. The DSS scanner can't detect the ring either. (It does scan the inner ring as one single ring, so it's not like the second ring is there as well.)

 

[K Olley]

I have never seen this on the second ring but I have seen it several times when there is a third ring present, the asteroids are so sparse that neither the ship or probes can find the ring.

 

[varonica]

Yes, the density is so low it may as well not be there as far as ships and mining etc are concerned, but they are definitely there, you can find ring material if you manage to get in just the right location. Some of them are all but invisible but still dense enough to pull you out of SC, that can be a bit of a shock!

 

[metatheurgist]

I see no reason why planets can't be a fan of the Phantom.

Spoiler

 

[Eahlstan]

For more data on this see https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...lmrvGxYnTfqU/edit?gid=220226808#gid=220226808

 

[Kira Goto]

I've found a ring like that around a gas giant a couple weeks ago, it far exceeded the orbit of the second moon and the only way I could really see it was by going up or down relative to the 'plane' of those rings and viewing it from there. Or by going to a third moon which had an offset orbit so probably captured, about 26ls from said gas giant at that time. This was the view I had of it.

So yeah, that's one big ring and its inner edge was too far from anything, so that I was simply unable to get probes to target it (because of some weird game limitations). I don't have its mass noted down but inner radius was roughly 1.2 million kilometers, and the outer... 4.9 million. Also crashed into it once during my attempts to get a probe into that thing.

 

[varonica]

I have my own from may years back, 8 years ago in fact, this was a huge ring, outer radius 25m kms.

If you were head on you could see it clearly.

From this angle you can clearly see the inner rings but the outer ring you can only just see cutting diagonally across the top right of the screen.

 

[DjVortex]

I have my own from may years back, 8 years ago in fact, this was a huge ring, outer radius 25m kms.

So perhaps from the right angle it might be faintly visible from the distance? But good luck trying to find any of the asteroids?

 

[varonica]

So perhaps from the right angle it might be faintly visible from the distance? But good luck trying to find any of the asteroids?

Yeah that's the way it works, the hardest part is getting into the actual ring, they aren't that thick and it's easy to fly straight through them without realising, a second or so flying either way and you won't see anything or you might just be lucky enough to spot a small rock.

 

[Ozzie_J_Isaacs]

I also had some large rings recently, but unfortunately they were not visible due to low mass/density. But the rings are there, you just have to find them.

And here is an example: a few days ago I found my first K Star with a ring, it is actually the 10th largest ring around a K Star that has been found so far

The ring was difficult to find, was again not visible, I first had to convert the mean ring radius into ls, and then I found it at 150ls

 

[GroG79]

Nice find Cmdr