In the attic and the basement(closer to the core) one will find neutrons, dwarfs and black holes, in the middle there are y's, t's and l's. I imagine this is based on scientific observation and if so is it known why these type of stars group together at certain "heights" ?
Position of stars along the Z axis
- Thread starter ThirdNostril
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"It's complicated" - there are good reasons why some of the large-scale structure we see in Elite's Milky Way should be there (you're probably better off asking Ziljan - it's not my bag, baby) - but there's also a lot of structure which is dictated by the way the Stellar Forge operates.
In particular, there are areas - a broad corridor running along the line from Sol to Sadge - where the formation of high-mass systems is suppressed - hence, we see areas of the remnants of high-mass stars - neutrons and black holes - in areas which are a) outside of this corridor and b) densely packed with stars - i.e. in two bands to either side of the core. I don't yet know how the z-axis ties into this - I suspect that the corridor is actually a cylinder, but I don't have the data to back it up yet.
They seem to exist along certain distances i'd say at least +-1000 ly above/below plane most commonly, sorta, maybe, but towards core probably also has something to do with it.
Astrophysics emergency detected!
Ok this is a VERY fascinating question of stellar evolution and galactic structure, and thankfully the answer is quite simple and the same for both objects!
1) why are there massive stellar corpses in nodes around the milky way?
2) why is there a thin band of L,Y,T dwarves in the middle?
ANSWER: The older stars become the more they drift above and below the plane of the milky way. Why?
The youngest stars, extreme population I stars generally start their lives at the center of the Thin Disk of the Milky Way. Because of a cool little calculation on stellar populations called "the initial mass function" (IMF), we know that the bulk of star formation are lower mass stars, pirmarily M class, but also L, Y, T. So in the youngest stars, we would expect to see significant numbers of brown and red dwarfs. As stars get older, they can randomly accrue more velocity from interaction with other massive galactic objects (molecular star formation clouds, etc). This is known as age related velocity dispersion. It is also a function of individual (violent) history and mass of the of the parent galaxy. But the important thing to remember is that the older the star gets, the more likely it is to have a higher vertical velocity away from the plane of the disk. This means that younger stars are more likely to be found in the middle of the disk, and older stars are more likely to be found heading towards the halo.
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But wait, you say, if the stars get older as you head above and below the milky way, then wouldn't extremely long lived dwarf stars be MORE prevalent? Well yes and no. The brown dwarfs do probably exist in higher numbers at higher altitudes, but they are so dim that we can't detect them. The brown dwarfs don't have nuclear fusion to keep them warm, and are primarily using electron degeneracy (like white dwarfs) to keep the core from collapsing. So they get cold very quickly, and become undetectable as they age, which is the reason that we don't find them easily above certain galactic altitudes. As least not in 2016. In 3302 it may be a different story.
Read more on brown dwarf distribution here:
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/...=0&data_type=GIF&type=SCREEN_VIEW&classic=YES
Now for the large mass stellar remnants (Neutrons and BH), Jackie has answered part of the question about why they exist in nodes rather than continuously throughout the central bulge. First, there is "mass suppression" within the core because the core is largely devoid of star forming gas and dust, mostly because it falls into the core (eg Sgr A*) whenever the galaxy core cannibalizes a small <1/5 mass galaxy. This is also the reason that the core has the same shape as an Elliptical Galaxy, many recent collisions keep the shape randomized, hence "semi-spherical". But just outside that core, we have the flatter disk and the spiral arm structure which is a series of density waves with plenty of cold gas and dust for rich high mass star formation. The density increases right up until you hit the core, for reasons mentioned above, where it drops off quickly.
However as we stated above, older stars tend to gain velocity dispersion and thus z-axis galactic altitude as they age. High mass stars live very short lives, so the remnants of massive stars Neutron Stars and Black Holes can be found very close to their places of birth, and they eventually drift above and below the regions of highest density and somewhat near where the spiral arms have approached the core.
All of this speaks very highly of Frontier's commitment to a theoretically accurate and deep modeling of the ED Milky Way with lots of nuanced structure that is ripe for penetrating and insightful questions like this. So thanks Nostril for bringing this up!
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Thanks for info, really appreciate it. I know I'll sound lazy but it would neat to have some kind encyclopedia on the ship's computer that goes in depth on these sort of things. Think like the bestiary in the witcher 3.
I know what you mean. The layers on this galaxy sim are so deep that I often find myself having to double check astrophysical journals and consult my text books. And to be honest, for me, this is most of the joy of exploration. Using a principles based approach to explaining the galactic structure and stellar populations that we find in the ED version of the Milky Way. This level of investigation is probably not a viable approach for most curious players however without a background in astronomy, so I have to agree that an encyclopedia would be a welcome feature. And once people have more of this basic knowledge down, then they will better equipped to understand scientific papers on the topic and even do their own research. ED is an amazing teaching tool already in this regard.
For this reason, I would definitely love to hear detailed explanations from their consultants at Cambridge or Oxford. Or whoever they used. If all this patterned depth is straight out of a Brabens own extensive knowledge, I would be extremely impressed. Ok let's face it, I'm already impressed. But really, I think this black box method of simulation (and the questions it brings up on the forums) is very much part of Frontier's design philosophy. I think they want people to question things and to be curious, and were probably even counting on people with science backgrounds to help fill in the gaps that Wikipedia isn't yet equipped to handle. Besides, I love fielding these kinds of questions anyway.
For this reason, I would definitely love to hear detailed explanations from their consultants at Cambridge or Oxford. Or whoever they used. If all this patterned depth is straight out of a Brabens own extensive knowledge, I would be extremely impressed. Ok let's face it, I'm already impressed. But really, I think this black box method of simulation (and the questions it brings up on the forums) is very much part of Frontier's design philosophy. I think they want people to question things and to be curious, and were probably even counting on people with science backgrounds to help fill in the gaps that Wikipedia isn't yet equipped to handle. Besides, I love fielding these kinds of questions anyway.
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