Found a planet that gets really close to a neutron star

[Orvidius]

Very likely. if it was just the neutron star and the planet no, capture is impossible in a 2 body system (assuming no interference from collisions or dust), but with the black hole easily possible.

Excellent point. I suppose another, though certainly less likely possibility, would be that as a rogue it could have collided with another object, with the resulting combined velocity being the orbit we see now.

Of course, I have no idea what level of detail StellarForge contains in this regard. According to FDev, it plays through a sequential series of time iterations to construct the star systems, and they did specifically mention that it takes into account rogue planets.

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

I wonder if there are any circumstances with highly elliptical orbits where you could land on a planet and then ride it *through* the exclusion zone of a star?

I think this thread (you must be aware of) details a world like that.

 

[Manticore]

Ok, after doing some quick calculations (thanks Wolfram), assuming the neutron star has 0.5 sol masses, at the close approach of 26ls, the planet should be travelling at 117.7km/s or 263,000mph, or 1.7 Helios 2 speeds, the fastest man made object (as of 2017). As a comparison, Earth orbits at 29.8km/s or 66,000 mph.

HOWEVER...take this with a pinch of salt as I am by no means a physicist, plus the equations didn't take into account the mass of the planet as it is fairly negligible compared to the mass of the star. Plus the previously mentioned Kepler laws also mean in reality it will orbit slightly slower than calculated.

Anyway, if anyone thinks I'm wrong then correct me, there were some VERY big numbers involved [big grin]

Great thread, great post. More of it on these boards I say.

I'm out exploring The Festival Grounds "north" and "west" of Colonia at the moment and using jet cone boosts. Next time I drop in on an n-star with a close orbiting planet I must land on it (hopefully not destroying my ship in the process).

o7!

 

[Ravenov]

Still out here, planet is currently 39Ls from the neutron. By chance i have a screenshot from the last time at exactly the same distance which worked out 14 hours from the point of closest pass, so just under 14 hours from this post (04:45GMT) should be when it next happens.

 

[Ravenov]

About 10Ls to go, can't work out which side it will pass on though...

 

[Ravenov]

~6Ls

 

[Ravenov]

Decided to reposition, flew out into the orbital plane to work out a better site where the neutron looked likely to pass overhead, or close to.

Didn't have much time to compose as it was moving quite fast. I did get the point of closest approach clocked though, 0.76Ls at 04:41:55 and it had moved to 0.78Ls by 04:43:31. It sat at 0.76Ls until at least 04:42:44 (when i switched to the external cam for the above screenshot.

Edit, if my working out is accurate (and at 5am it might be shaky) the next close pass will be Wednesday 17th at 21:12GMT, give or take a 10 minutes or so.

 

[Flatkat]

Wow, great post, mind boggling math calcs and some beautiful pics. +Repped [up]

 

[Ravenov]

Wow, great post, mind boggling math calcs and some beautiful pics. +Repped [up]

Thanks! Although i think the 5am thing was true, might have been off by an hour or so, looking at it again it's more likely to be 22:22. Not sure if i want to hang around that long to test it or not though...

 

[malenfant]

what are those bright blue side jets coming off the main cone in the last pic?

 

[Jackie Silver]

Nice!

 

[Winterwalker]

Great find OP. I hope your Commander is wearing a nice shiny flightsuit, to protect from all that radiation!

 

[Whitehair]

Yeah i had an inkling that would be the case, hence my fudge factor in when i logged on to check. Right now (~11 hours from closest pass) the planet has moved on to 34Ls from the neutron, so still moving at a fair lick.



https://imgur.com/C2RU4Iq.jpg

And the black hole that is the primary body in system, not that it has any impact.

Thats a bit wierd - the black hole having a larger radius than the Neutron star!

 

[varonica]

Thats a bit wierd - the black hole having a larger radius than the Neutron star!

Surely that should be radius of the event horizon of the black hole, not the radius of the black hole

Never mind me, just being pedantic, but I don't think we can actually measure the radius of black hole because that would mean information coming out of black hole, which is theoretically impossible.

 

[Ravenov]

what are those bright blue side jets coming off the main cone in the last pic?

Part of the jet cone, there seems to be a different LoD for it when viewed from a planetary surface ... When I flew off planet to reposition I noticed it change to the one we see in space after I'd travelled a few Ls from the surface. I have a lousy video I took the last time, I'll see if I can upload it at some point.

Edit, apologies for the watermark, i don't record videos very often...

[video=youtube_share;CWzpdC5TEKc]https://youtu.be/CWzpdC5TEKc[/video]