Hi, So I seen some amazing videos from I believe a system named Episolon or something along that line, Anyhow it had a moon or planet you could land on and then see the moon/planet whipping by rather fast as you are just watching it. So my question is, I am 7.5kly from SOL and heading to SAG A, So how can I "tell" if anything I am seeing on system map would give me this view if I was to land on it?? THANK YOU ALL IN ADVANCE
Moon/Planet Rotation Speed? Can I tell?
- Thread starter cassini12
- Start date
Typically I go by orbital period. From my observations if it has a short orbital period (0.5D or less), it's going to be pretty close to the body it's orbiting so you're going to get a better close-up view.
You're likely thinking of Mitterand Hollow, in the Epsilon Indi system, which is in the bubble. It's also not currently reproduced anywhere that I know about; it is a special case and wouldn't be possible under the normal physics system.
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Yep, Mitterand Hollow is an anomaly, caused by a typo when entering a moon's statistics in a hand-crafted system within the Bubble. It's actually caused by orbital speed, not rotation speed. It takes just 86 seconds to orbit the planet, whereas a moon like that orbiting a planet like that should take at least a couple of hours.
The Stellar Forge that generates randomly-generated stars and planets cannot generate moons that move that fast. A fast orbit requires it to be very, very close to a massive object. The Stellar forge observes what is known as the Roche limit which sets the closest a moon can be to a planet without breaking up due to tidal stress. If a moon is generated that's inside the Roche limit, the Forge turns it into a ring instead.
I have seen planets so close to stars that they're visibly moving, but that's about as close as it gets.
The Stellar Forge that generates randomly-generated stars and planets cannot generate moons that move that fast. A fast orbit requires it to be very, very close to a massive object. The Stellar forge observes what is known as the Roche limit which sets the closest a moon can be to a planet without breaking up due to tidal stress. If a moon is generated that's inside the Roche limit, the Forge turns it into a ring instead.
I have seen planets so close to stars that they're visibly moving, but that's about as close as it gets.
And as for the OP's actual question: no, you can't easily tell from the current System Map how closely a moon orbits a planet. Orbital distances on the system map are given in AU, which is a rather useless unit of measurement when it comes to orbits of moons.
It will tell you rotation period once you scan it, but that's rather too late by then.
It will tell you rotation period once you scan it, but that's rather too late by then.
Actually you can, the orbital period is listed in the detailed system view before detailed scanning of a body. You either get the orbital period around the sun if it is a major planet with moons, the orbital period around the planet if it is a single moon, binary moons/planets give the orbital period around each other, not sure where the line is drawn for calling it a binary moon system or a planet/moon system though. What you can't tell from the system map of course is rotation, but generally once you get down to a few light seconds most bodies are tidally locked, so the rotation speed is the same as the orbital period. So if a bodies orbital period is 0.1 days and it's tidally locked, which it usually will be at that distance from the planet, then it's rotation is 0.1 days, or 1.2 hours.
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As CMDR Varonica wrote, the orbital period is the best indicator, and anything below -say- 0.6 is close - I haven't seen faster orbit thsan 0.2 day, which is fast enough to see the bodies actually moving. Another interesting metric is the eccentricity, there are some weird orbits with very close pass-bys.
Another fun thing is this, an orbital period of less than 1 day is fast, getting right down to 0.2 to 0.4 gives you a bit of a chase if it's a moon around a planet, but I have occasionally come across a planet with a very low orbital period around a sun, and when you get down to orbital periods in the region of .4 the planet is moving faster than you at lowest SC speed. If you are chasing it and have to push up to 200kps to catch it you end up being pulled into it's influence a couple of MM's away doing 200kps relative to it! It gets a bit....hairy at that point
yeah 0.2 is probably the shortest orbital period I can recall seeing as well.