Finding out "VERTICAL" position of a system agaist galaxy plane

[Droid_orat]

Hi,

how does one find vertical position of any system (i.e. perpendicular to the galaxy's plane).

Is it encoded in the system name code?

Thanks!

 

[Ian Doncaster]

A few options
1) Search the system name in EDSM (https://www.edsm.net/) If it has known coordinates, you'll get them exactly.
2) Search the system name in the galaxy map. When the map zooms in, don't scroll it, just check the second coordinate on the grid. That's an approximate height

It is encoded in the system name, but not entirely straightforwardly - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/196297-RV-Sonnenkreis-Decoding-Universal-Cartographics

 

[Droid_orat]

Thanks Ian, this is most useful.

Has anyone done any research on whether there are more dense earth-like/water world concentration towards the galaxy plane/other locations?

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Has anyone done any research on whether there are more dense earth-like/water world concentration towards the galaxy plane/other locations?

I don't believe anyone's collected sufficient data to tell. The Borderlands Venture - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/263827-Expedition-Borderlands-Venture - might be the best bet for collecting enough systematic data in that area?

In terms of ELWs per system, I'd expect more away from the plane, as that has much more older and brighter stars (G and F class) where they're more common.

In terms of per cubic lightyear, of course, the star density is much lower (and the core will be higher regardless) so there may be more in absolute terms near the plane.

In terms of chances of a particular (say) G-class system having an ELW? I have no idea.

 

[CMDR Murf]

The key to finding water worlds or earth likes is star class.
They are found mostly around A, F, G, K and strangely often around Neutrons and Black Holes

The gaps between the arms of the galaxy have low star frequency. Less stars means less planets, and stars in gaps tend to be cooler (Red and Brown Dwarfs). They have mostly ice worlds.
The brighter regions in the center and along the arms are denser, better chance of nice planets. Stars in bright areas are often the kind you need for Earth Likes.

Neutrons and Black Holes are most frequent Around the outer center regions (inner center is mostly F/G/K class). Neutrons/Black Holes also appear a lot 1,000 ly above and below the plane, however stars are only reachable there within a certain distance of the center.

One more note, in my experience a lot of brown dwarf fields are below the plane's 0 vertical co-ordinate. So staying between 1-300 above is ideal unless looking for Neutrons/Black Holes.

Edit: also, if you travel around the core, galaxy map will be incredibly annoying. Stay over 1000ly above/below the core or over 3000ly away if you're on the plane.

 

[Jackie Silver]

Thanks Ian, this is most useful.

Has anyone done any research on whether there are more dense earth-like/water world concentration towards the galaxy plane/other locations?

marx and Chiggy von Richtofen have been doing something along those lines, looking at whether there was an increased concentration of ELW along sector boundaries; last I was aware there didn't appear to be any correlation but they may have found something new since then.

I've been trying to get a handle on the overall distribution of stars and so on but no great insights.

 

[Droid_orat]

fantastic stuff guys. Exactly what I wanted. Thanks!

 

[marx]

Oh yes, with lots of help from Jackie Silver, we did look into the distribution of the approximate position of Earth-likes relative to the center of their sectors. I'll write up a detailed post about this later, as it's a fairly interesting story. As he said though, there isn't really anything new on this, and I've mostly abandoned looking into this. I did plot the coordinates of all the ELW-s for which we do have them, which is ~1500 systems out of ~3800. If you take a look at that (see the link in my sig, then it's on the "Maps" sheet), the galactic plane does have a slightly higher concentration, but not much - and it's probably explained by the selection bias of explorers, especially the closer you get to Sagittarius A* and Beagle Point.