Minerva Centaurus Expedition

Erimus Kamzel

Erimus Kamzel
Good luck commanders o7

[FONT=&quot]NOV 3303 - MAR 3304[/FONT][FONT=&quot]MINERVA CENTAURUS EXPEDITION[/FONT][FONT=&quot]EXPLORATION[/FONT][FONT=&quot]100+[/FONT][FONT=&quot]YANICK[/FONT]UNDERWAY[FONT=&quot]CCN[/FONT]


:)
 
Last edited:

Steyla

Steyla
Greetings from the MCE.

fcxfZWB.jpg


Fly/land safe.

CMDR Steyla
 

AndrewCrisp

AndrewCrisp
Some sights found on the way to Waypoint 2 - Endeavour

Approaching a water world's southern pole:

DFoSsnb.png


A close binary and potential navigation hazard - but a spectacular view:

sG2t23e.png


After nearly 300 stars charted thus far, I found an ammonia world orbiting a brown dwarf, itself orbiting an A type primary:

mZw1GD6.png


I've found no Earthlikes on my current path, though plenty of gas giants with life, both water and ammonia based. Also a few previously-uncharted neutron stars.

Now descending below the galactic plane, and finding more red dwarfs than brighter stars, but so far this leg of the journey is easily navigable. No stretches of brown dwarfs or T Tauri stars like I found reaching the first waypoint.
 

AndrewCrisp

AndrewCrisp
Another geyser find; this time silicate vapour geysers in Eifols sector (full report to be posted in the geysers and fumaroles master thread):

TcZm8P8.png


Very glad I brought the Cobra; as landing here would have been impossible for anything larger!
 

AndrewCrisp

AndrewCrisp
And now time for a science report...

I've decided to start focusing my efforts on this expedition to digging into how the Scutum-Centaurus Arm fares in terms of habitability and stellar formation. Taking the excellent work done by Jackie Silver as a starting point, and with the counsel of a few of my expedition mates (with special shoutouts to CMDRs DavidBowman, Uthred Ragnarson, and _RUKUS_), I'm now sampling regions of the arm near the galactic plane as I go.

My first sample was a cube 20ly on a side from the Dryo Aowsy sector, and I've just finished compiling the data. Here's what I've found:

24 systems were found in the sample volume, making for 1 system for every 333 cubic light-years, or 0.003 systems per cubic ly.

Surveying the primary stars of these systems yielded the following breakdown by spectral type:
B stars: 1
A Stars: 1
F Stars: 4
G Stars: 3
K Stars: 3
M Stars: 10
L Stars: 1
T Stars: 1

All but two of the stars were main sequence stars (luminosity class V). There were two dwarf stars (luminosity class VI), an M type star which was also the oldest star at 12.49 GYa, and an F type star at 482 MYa.
Speaking of stellar ages: Youngest star was the B type at 222 MYa, oldest was the previously mentioned M dwarf, and the average stellar age for the sample volume was 5.238 GYa.

Life-bearing worlds were almost nonexistent in the sample volume, with only 1 gas giant with ammonia-based life found.

I plan to survey another 20ly cube in Dryo Aowsy tomorrow, and will try to survey three sample regions from selected sectors along the galactic plane as I continue down the arm. Further reports (plus hopefully some nifty charts!) as events warrant.
 

AndrewCrisp

AndrewCrisp
As promised, I've completed my second survey in the Dryo Aowsy sector.

Some Caveats:

Any predictions offered are expected to be accurate within the Dryo Aowsy sector only near the Galactic Plane (defined here as Y = -20 to Y = 0 in the coordinate system used on the GalMap; the -20 value comes from Jackie Silver's work in finding the scale height for the galaxy).

Certain items, as they were not detected in the survey volume, may still be present elsewhere in the Dryo Aowsy sector, but their population cannot be predicted without more data.

And now, my findings and analysis:

Stellar Density and Population Estimates:

The second sample region contained 31 star systems within the target volume, yielding a density of 0.0039 stars per cubic ly. Taken with the first sample, I predict total stellar density for the galactic plane region of Dryo Aowsy to be in the vicinity of 0.0034 stars per cubic ly.

As for individual spectral types: the second sample region yielded the following for primary stars:

A stars: 3
G stars: 3
K stars: 9
M stars: 16

No brown dwarfs or massive stars were found in the region volume. All but two stars were main-sequence stars (luminosity class V); as with the first region, two were subdwarfs (luminosity class VI).

Combined with the findings from the first sample region, we can now make a reasonable prediction of the stellar populations in the Dryo Aowsy sector:

Predicted B Stars: 409,600
Predicted A Stars: 1,638,400
Predicted F Stars: 1,638,400
Predicted G Stars: 2,457,600
Predicted K Stars: 4,915,200
Predicted M Stars: 10,649,600
Predicted L Dwarfs: 409,600
Predicted T Dwarfs: 409,600

O Stars, Neutron Stars, and other star types were not found in the sample volumes, so while no reasonable prediction of their populations may be generated, we can expect there to be a few in the sector along the galactic plane.

Life-Bearing Worlds

The second sample volume revealed more life-bearing worlds than the first. 3 water worlds were found in the sample region, as well as 1 gas giant with water-based life and 1 gas giant with ammonia based life. Taken together with the data from the first sample region, we get the following predictions of life-bearing worlds in Dryo Aowsy along the Galactic Plane:

Potential Water Worlds: 1,228,800
Potential Water-Life Gas Giants: 409,600
Potential Ammonia-Life Gas Giants: 819,200

Again, no Earthlike worlds or Ammonia worlds were found in the sample regions. We can expect there to be some, but their numbers would be considerably smaller than the other life-bearing worlds observed.

Stellar Age And Stellar Formation

The second sample region showed a wide range of stellar ages much as the first sample region did. The youngest star was a G-type main sequence star at 728 MYa, while the oldest star was an M-type main sequence star at 12.928 GYa. Average stellar age was 6.585 GYa.

A comparison of median and mean ages for each sample region yields the following:
Dryo Aowsy 1 - Mean: 5.238 GYa / Median: 5.091 GYa
Dryo Aowsy 2 - Mean: 6.585 GYa / Median: 5.926 GYa

At this point, it is difficult to say how this breakdown of stellar ages reflects on the rate of stellar formation in the sector.

So concludes my first sector analysis for this expedition. I'm currently travelling towards WP4 (will get there a few days late), and will probably proceed directly to WP5. After the holidays, I'll return to the galactic plane for another sector survey.

ERRATA - JANUARY 6: While completing my analysis of my survey data for the Hypo Free sector, I discovered I'd made a serious error in my calculations for stellar and planetary populations; and calculated for a volume a hundred times larger than the actual volume. Below are the proper projections:

For Stellar Populations in Dryo Aowsy:

Predicted B Stars: 2,048
Predicted A Stars: 8,192
Predicted F Stars: 8,192
Predicted G Stars: 12,288
Predicted K Stars: 24,576
Predicted M Stars: 53,248
Predicted L Dwarfs: 2,048
Predicted T Dwarfs: 2,048

For Life Bearing Worlds in Dryo Aowsy:

Potential Water Worlds: 6,144
Potential Water-Life Gas Giants: 2,048
Potential Ammonia-Life Gas Giants: 4,096

My apologies for the error. See you... Out There.
 
Last edited:

AndrewCrisp

AndrewCrisp
Well, this is a nice way to end the day. After 4 weeks of travel on this expedition and roughly 27,000 lightyears logged, I hadn't found a single Earthlike world. Water worlds, ammonia worlds, and gas giants with life, but no Earthlikes.

Until today:

qBl9on5.png


This planet is slightly smaller than Earth, but mass and radius are in the right proportions for a 1 g gravity field on the surface. There are no moons or rings. I advise visitors to wear pressure suits - surface pressure is 4 times Earth standard but the oxygen content is only 5.2%. There's no detectable amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Local temperatures sit just below freezing at 270 K.

Given the planet's age (4.7 GYa), it seems strange that this world has no CO2 levels, and I'm left to conclude that there is little or no surface animal life - certainly no megafauna or sophonts. Plant life is visible; you can see plenty of greenery from the above picture. There is also little volcanic activity. I wonder if this is a planet entering the post-biotic phase. The smaller mass and radius would mean that this world's core would cool faster than Earth, with a subsequent shutdown of any plate tectonics and gradual cessation of volcanic activity. The loss of volcanism would in turn deprive this planet of its greenhouse layer, and the world would start to cool. More study is definitely needed; but while this may be a good location for scientific research, I cannot recommend this world as a potential colony site.
 

Mack Winston

Mack Winston
AndrewCrisp said:
I advise visitors to wear pressure suits - surface pressure is 4 times Earth standard but the oxygen content is only 5.2%.
Click to expand...

You can do without a suit - at 4 atmospheres the PP O2 (partial pressure O2) will be 0.2 atm (the same as Earth's PP O2), so it would be perfectly breathable for a human. You might need to bring your warm coat though with an average global temp of 270K.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom