ELW oddity?

[CMDR CHIGGY VONRICTOFEN]

Well, I think it's a bit odd myself anyhow.....

Main star is an A9, it is a multiple star system, but nearest to it is 40K away, so I can't see it having much influence heat-wise. EDDiscovery says the habitable zone is from 1,031 ls to 2057 ls. Not only is the ELW outside of this range by almost twice, but the HMC and it's WW moon right before the ELW are Teraformable and outside of the zone as well...

 

[iain666]

Additional stars in the system inflate the habitable zone by a lot more than they should. We know it's a lot, AFAIK we don't have a numerical value for "a lot" and this plus the fact that before FSS we wouldn't generally have the details of distant companion stars is why the habitable zone in EDD is for the single star it's attached to only.

As soon as you bring a second star into play then it's all a bit up in the air.

 

[Sapyx]

If the secondary star 40k away is another A class, or even a G class, then the effect you're seeing wouldn't surprise me.

For multiple star systems, the effect on the Goldilocks zone is to both push it further out and make it wider. And every little bit seems to help, in terms of even stars that are small and/or far away all add in their little bit to the Goldilocks zone calculator.

 

[Syke Jr]

It's a great find regardless. Just because it isn't a glitch doesn't mean it's at all common or any less cool. Plus you just made like 8 or 9 million credits.

 

[Friedenreich Xante]

Well if Chiggy thinks it's odd, you bet it is. How many ELW's on your counter now? But like previous posters, I'm not suprised, because 40kls is not really far away for a secondary star, and if it's of the hotter range of the main sequence (which we don't know from your post), its effect on the habitable zone in exagerated in this game.

 

[marx]

There's also another thing that helps: all the water in the atmosphere. For the ELW, it's ~0.013 atm partial pressure, and the HMCP is mostly made up of it (80% or 90%, you cropped it out), having ended up with a thick atmosphere cooking the planet. Not many know it, but in Elite, the devs made water a more potent greenhouse gas than in real life. This isn't surprising (although I suspect that they might have made a typo in the parameters), as the mechanisms involving it are complex, with positive feedback loops, amplification of other gases' effects and such. It's still the subject of plenty of research today, and let's not forget that the Forge was made five years ago. For a game, it's easier to just go with a simpler model.

Anyway, back to the ELW in question: without the water in its atmosphere, the ELW might have gone from 278 K to under 260 K (and thus becoming a WWTC) - that's a bit hard to tell, especially without knowing all about the stars in the system. Then there's the matter of the mechanics of how multiple stars affect habitable zones, which is likely more important anyway.
So it's at least two factors, both reinforcing each other.

 

[MattG]

Reminds me of this one:

Spoiler

That ELW orbits an Herbig Ae/Be, which have tiny habitable zones - but this one manages to survive a (relatively) long, long way out because there is a class B ~300k LS away.

 

[Orvidius]

Also reminds me of this one, in the GMP as Undine Haven. All seven of the planets orbiting the L dwarf are terraformable (6 of which are WWs). That L-dwarf system is about 28kls from the neutron star and M-star, and as a result that entire orbital zone around the L-dwarf is habitable.

Spoiler