Sapyx's ED7K Project is underway

[Sapyx]

After much ummming and aaah-ing, I have finally decided to embark on my next great exploration venture, and dabble in systematic surveying to try and answer some "big questions" which I don't think any other data accumulation has been able to answer conclusively. I originally posted some speculation about this in this thread from August last year. The FSS has been introduced since the original idea, so I have expanded it and altered it to better encompass what the FSS now allows to do.

My goal remains much the same: to visit 1400 stars - 200 of each of the most common star types (B, A, F, G, K, M and L) - in five different sectors, for a total of 7000 stars. It's a big ask, especially since my grand total of visited stars before I set off, in the four years I've been playing this game, was only about 16,000 stars. My aim is to subsample the stars in each sector more or less randomly across the entire sector, to try to eliminate any biases that individual boxels of stars might generate.

I've chosen to use star class, rather than mass codes or boxels, as the primary sorting characteristic, because star classes can be easily filtered for on the galaxy map - mass codes and boxels currently cannot. My asumption is that many explorers either do not filter stars at all (using Realistic mode to navigate) or filter certain star classes in or out, for optimal hunting of their targets (usually ELWs or other valuables). For star classes that occur across several mass codes, I am attempting to get a "random sample" within each sector. I will neither deliberately aim for, nor deliberately exclude, stars with "abnormal" mass codes - I'll take whatever the route plotter gives me.

The aim is to try to answer questions like the following:

- Just how much more common are water worlds, compared to ammonia worlds and ELWs? My "gut feeling", statistics-free answer to this question is that it's about a 10:3:1 ratio, but other explorers are reporting something more like 10:1:1. I will be investigating this, and whether there is a noticeable difference in the ratio across the different star types (eg. are ammonia worlds relatively much more common in K-class systems?)

- Just how common are life-bearing planets - any kind of life - in the galaxy? By "life-bearing planet" I don't mean planets with biological signals, I mean one of the following planet types: ELW, WW, AW, GGWBL and GGABL. Again, my "gut feeling" is that about one in five star systems has at least one life-bearing planet of some kind in it . This survey won't directly answer the question, since it doesn't address the relative abundance of the various star types, but it should at least help point us in the right direction. Perhaps the vast majority of life-bearing planets are "hiding" in star types that explorers traditionally ignore (such as M-class).

- What advice should we be giving to newbie explorers, as to which stars to filter for (a) best chance at Earth-likes, and (b) maximum credits? "FIlter for F and G", "Filter for F only", "Filter for F, G and A" are all advice I've seen posted. There seems to be consensus that F-class is better. Is this true, and if so, by how much?

- Other minor questions will be asked and, hopefully, answered, as the survey progresses and the data examined. For example: what are the relative abundances of the "normal" class 1 to class 5 gas giants? Anecdotally, Class 3 are the most common... but how much more common, and how is it affected by star class? It seems logical that "hotter" classes would be more common around hotter stars, so will the "class 3 is most common" hold true across star types?

The advent of the FSS has allowed the original scope of the Project to be expanded. Rather than just looking at the "big three" (ELW, WW and AW), I'm going to do a comprehensive survey of each planet type. My methodology shall be as follows:

• Travel to target sector.
• On arrival, set star class filter to a single target star class. Class B and Class L shall be analysed simultaneously, as Class L needs to be combined with something fuel-scoopable.
• On arrival in each system, honk the Discovery Scanner and record the number of objects detected via the honk.
• Use the FSS to scan every single object in the system.
• Spreadsheet the count of planet types, according to the 21 planet categories likely to be encountered in procedurally-generated systems. I will not be distinguishing landable/non-landable, as I still have hope that every planet type will one day become landable.
• Plot transects across each sector, using either Economic or Fastest route modes (whichever seems most appropriate for the star class).
• Survey 200 systems of the selected class, then switch the map filter to the next class.
• Repeat until all seven star classes are surveyed.
• Move to next selected sector.

I have selected the five sectors I will be targeting; they are located in the following regions: Perseus Arm (Vulcan Gate); Outer Core (Odin's Hold / Empyrean Straits border region); Inner Core (Galactic Centre); Inner Norma Arm (Norma Arm); Carina Arm (Hawking's Gap region). As I am also attempting to survey the extent of commander exploration in these sectors, please forgive me for withholding the exact names of the sectors until each sector is complete. I will try to pull into port and sell the data as soon as possible after each survey is completed, to optimize discussion of the data.

I departed Human Space on the 24th of April aboard my favoured exploration vessel, the Erebus. Just over 50 LY max jump range. Arrived in the Vulcan Gate Sector on 2nd May and began the survey, beginning with the combined Class B / Class L series. I've finished these surveys today and am now a quarter of the way through the A-class survey.

Will post some preliminary results for the Class B and Class L systems in my next post.

Edit on 14/10/20: for those coming late to the party, the survey is now complete and the survey statistics can be found on this Google Docs spreadsheet:

ED 7K Planetary Survey

Summary ED 7K Planetary abundance survey Thraikoo,Western Arms,Total Sector 1,system count,no planets,ELW count,TWW count,NTWW count,AW count,Colony systems,Lifesystems,% no planets,ELW %,TWW %,NTWW%,AW %,Colony%,Life%,no. of worlds B,200,81,0,3,6,0,12,13,40.5,0.0,1.5,3.0,0.0,6.0,6.5 A,200,51,5,13

docs.google.com

 

[Sapyx]

Results for Sector 1, B-class stars:

Systems surveyed: 200
Stars within systems surveyed: 629 (average number of stars per system: 3.1)
Systems with no planets, only other stars: 81 (40.5%)
"Colonizable" systems (systems with at least one ELW or TFC): 12 (6%)
"Life-bearing" systems: 13 (6.5%)
Total number of planets found: 1674
Number of ELWs discovered: 0
Number of TFCs discovered: 16
Number of Ammonia Worlds discovered: 0
Number of Water Worlds (all types): 9
Number of systems previous explored by other CMDRs: 2

Observations: B-class stars are dead. In several senses of the word. In the sense of "mostly worthless": They contain very, very few colonizables - while a vast number of HMCs were found in these B-class systems (523 in total) all but 10 of them couldn't be terraformed because they're either too large, too hot or both. And these systems were dead in the literal sense: the Stellar Forge seems to have an age-of-star factor in determining whether life is present (which seems a reasonable thing to have in the equations). While gas giants abound, very few are life-bearing. All the life found was water-based; no ammonia-based lifeforms were detected. I guess the Thargoids hate Class B stars.

It should perhaps not surprise that high-heat worlds were well-represented (14 class 5, 126 class 4 and 84 metal-rich) while cold worlds were almost entirely absent: just one class 1, six class 2, one rocky-ice and eight icy. Yet the "class 3 giants are most common" rule seems to have held, with 197 found.

You'll note the rather large number of "extra stars": 429 more than the number of systems. A large proportion of these were small T Tauri "stars" in planetary orbits; B-class stars seem to attract more than their fair share of such objects, as one perhaps might expect from their youthfulness.

All the systems surveyed were mass code e, except for one mass code f system. I did pass through one boxel of high-helium, which created a handful of Helium-rich giants (found 5 in total, in two systems within the YE-A boxel).

Surprise of the trip: about one-tenth of the B-class stars surveyed were officially Giants, as far as the Codex is concerned. There's no special text for them on the galaxy map, but their luminosity class was III or IV, so they're technically "giants", and branded as such by the Codex.

 

[Sapyx]

Results for Sector 1, L-class stars:

Systems surveyed: 200
Stars within systems surveyed: 325 (average number of stars per system: 1.6)
Systems with no planets, only other stars: 68 (34%)
"Colonizable" systems: 4 (2%)
"Life-bearing" systems: 6 (3%)
Total number of planets found: 1583
Number of ELWs discovered: 0
Number of TFCs discovered: 4
Number of Ammonia Worlds discovered: 0
Number of Water Worlds (all types): 4
Number of systems previous explored by other CMDRs: 0

Observations: At the opposite extreme to B-class stars, but L-class stars are just as dead. They contain even fewer colonizables, primarily because the Goldilocks Zone of a solo L-class is so tiny, the probability of a planet landing inside it is very, very low. Only one terraformable waterworld was discovered. Surprisingly, all the life found was water-based; no ammonia-based lifeforms were detected - I had assumed that AWs would out-number WWs, but this was not the case. I'm assuming that the narrower band for ammonia-Goldilocks means they're even less likely to form.

Most of the HMCs were found in the tiny proportion of systems were additional heat was present, in the form of a nearby secondary star. Three or four systems featured binary L-class stars that were at just the right distance apart (about 500 to 900 Ls), to melt all of their planets.

One thing I found evidence for, which I had only anecdotally noticed earlier, was that L-class stars like having many planets. If an L-class star has any planets at all, it usually has six or seven, or more - rarely just one or two. This does mean that the 200 systems I surveyed generated a whopping 1354 scans of iceballs.

All the systems surveyed were mass code b. Unfortunately, the sector I had chosen did not incorporate the galaxy-spanning "brown dwarf disc" that runs through the galactic equator. This made hunting them down just that little bit harder.

Surprise of the trip: two of the L-class systems surveyed had an M-class star as the junior partner of a binary system. I checked, and double-checked: the M-class stars were lighter than the L-class stars in both cases. I'm not sure what quirk of the Stellar Forge allows this, as it's my understanding that stellar ignition (commencement of fusion, creating a "true star") is purely mass-based, so those L-class stars ought to be Class M as well. In any event, those distant M-class stars did add some additional heat to their respective systems.

Late edit: I found an error in the TFC count; I'd accidentlaly filed seven non-terraformable moons as terraformable, so it's even worse than I had previously estimated.

 

[Rooster Podunk]

I'm admiring your spunk and tenacity. My current effort regarding B stars is going over subclass. Some early (very) efforts seem to point me at B8s and B9s for both increased material and bio possibilities but I'm only a couple thousand LY into it and have little empirical data backup at this time. I wish the look at the system map info on a star would identify the subclass. It would speed things up a bit from having to close the system map and go to the GalMap to see subclass. Doing the jump-around-your-plot-dance because the GalMap only sorts by primary class and can't be broken down into subclass is for me a pain in the old tail feathers. But I guess all we "need" to know is a B is a B is a B.

 

[marx]

I'll be curious about the results when they are all in, to see if there are any differences with this sample size between the different regions. Personally, I think that 200 systems per each is too few for conclusions, but quite a lot for one Commander. Ever thought about trying to get others involved as well? Personally, I might be tempted to help out.

As for class B stars and subclass, to both of you: take note that Vz stars are different than the rest, and their system generation tends to be much worse for planets, especially the valuable ones. The Forge generates quite a lot of the B stars as B0 Vz, and it might be worth noting down which ones were that. This doesn't have to be done prior to entering the system: I think that the required information might even be in the journal now, but I don't (yet) know if this specific case can be told. (I do know that we had enough info to estimate luminosity and subclass already, EDSM does it automatically too.)

 

[Spaceman Si]

In Lord of the Rings speak, “You have my AspX” if you’d like some assistance somewhere sometime

(Though I am awaiting a fix for the FSS before I get back into my pilot’s chair at the moment... )

 

[Sapyx]

Thanks for all the offers of assistance, but I'm afraid my casual-ness is likely to be a hindrance and annoyance to any partners. Plus, I'm wanting to find out just how long an endeavour like this would take. Perhaps once it's done, and people think this sort of thing is worth expanding upon, a more organized group survey could be co-ordinated.

I made excellent progress last week as I was off work on holiday, and made over 100 system scans per day. Now I'm back in the daily grind, and down to my usual 25-30 systems on most weekdays. I'm currently up to A-class system number 74, and found two Earth-likes already. They were a sight for sore eyes, after viewing hundreds of blue and purple systems with no ELWs.

 

[Sapyx]

Results for Sector 1, A-class stars:

Systems surveyed: 200
Stars within systems surveyed: 394 (average number of stars per system: 1.97)
Systems with no planets, only other stars: 51 (25.5%)
"Colonizable" systems: 59 (29.5%)
"Life-bearing" systems: 71 (35.5%)
Total number of planets found: 2385
Number of ELWs discovered: 5
Number of TFCs discovered: 118
Number of Ammonia Worlds discovered: 4
Number of Water Worlds (all types): 38
Number of systems previous explored by other CMDRs: 1 (plus one more reported on EDSM)

Observations: As expected, life is far more abundant in A-class stars. Five ELWs out of 200 is better than I expected I would find; that's a 1 in 40 ratio. 118 terraformables of all classes were found, giving an average of nearly two per system; the Goldilocks Zone of an A-class, especially if it's given a secondary star to widen it, is usually wide enough to accommodate two or more planets. All five ELW systems, for example, had either one or two more TFCs in them. The Earth-likes themselves were not particularly exciting, as ELWs go; only one was a moderately good exact match for Earth (gravity, temperature, volcanism and axial tilt matched, but not mass, pressure, day-length and moon-count).

The WW:AW:ELW ratio in this survey was 38:4:5, which is close enough to the previously reported 10:1:1 to qualify; it is a hotter star class, though; I suspect my own hypothesis of 10:3:1 might get closer in the cooler stars.

All the systems surveyed were mass code d. I'm pretty sure A-class stars do occur in other code levels, but I didn't happen to bump into any in this survey, so they mustn't be very probable.

Surprise of the trip: not terribly much surprising this circuit, but I did find, in a system with three Class Y brown dwarfs in planetary orbits, the largest of the three had three HMCs orbiting it (rather than the usual Rocky moons) - and two of them were TFCs.

 

[Sapyx]

I've also added a total WW count for each of the previous surveys, as this is one of the targets of interest.

 

[Sapyx]

Results for Sector 1, F-class stars:

Systems surveyed: 200
Stars within systems surveyed: 385 (average number of stars per system: 1.93)
Systems with no planets, only other stars: 54 (27%)
"Colonizable" systems: 60 (30%)
"Life-bearing" systems: 66 (33%)
Total number of planets found: 2534
Number of ELWs discovered: 5
Number of TFCs discovered: 149
Number of Ammonia Worlds discovered: 7
Number of Water Worlds (all types): 31
Number of systems previous explored by other CMDRs: 0

Observations: It surprised me how close the numbers for A and F class stars were, in terms of numbers of ELWs, and life generally; I expected A-class to be distinctly "deader", but they're not. The ELW hit ratio is still 1:40, and the number of "colonizable planets per colonizable system" is even higher, at 154 worlds across 66 star systems, giving an average of two and a third planets per system. None of the five Earth-likes were particularly noteworthy. Curiously, the total number of life-bearing systems has actually fallen, with the increase in terrestrial worlds outweighed by a decrease in numbers of life-bearing gas giants.

The WW:AW:ELW ratio in this survey was 31:7:5, so I'm starting to see the Ammonia ratio creep up - we'll have to wait and see if it's a genuine trend, or just a statistical fluke. The decline in numbers of Waterworlds surprised me, though the terraformable/nonterraformable ratio remains about the same, at about 2:1. As one might expect for cooler stars, there were fewer of the "hot" planets - no class V giants, for example. And the number of secondary stars is falling rapidly, and the number of "planetary" stars is falling rapidly with the reducing mass of the primary (as you would expect it to). The water/ammonia ratio with the life-bearing gas giants is certainly increasing: 6:0 for B, 43:11 for A and 34:15 for F.

All the systems surveyed were mass code d; I don't think there's much of a choice for F-class stars. None were giants - no F-class giants have been reported at all in the region, so I assume there aren't any to be found here.

Surprise of the trip: another boxel of Helium-rich stars, a different mass-code to the previous ones found around some B-class stars and in a different location within the sector. 10 HRGGs were found in two star systems within the boxel, including one at 34% helium, where all six gas giants within the system were HRGGs. I will reveal all to the helium-hunters once the data is verified at port.

 

[Sapyx]

Results for Sector 1, G-class stars:

Systems surveyed: 200
Stars within systems surveyed: 372 (average number of stars per system: 1.86)
Systems with no planets, only other stars: 56 (28%)
"Colonizable" systems: 52 (26%)
"Life-bearing" systems: 49 (24.5%)
Total number of planets found: 2240
Number of ELWs discovered: 2
Number of TFCs discovered: 86
Number of Ammonia Worlds discovered: 4
Number of Water Worlds (all types): 19
Number of systems previous explored by other CMDRs: 0

Observations: I'm frankly shocked at how much worse G-type stars were, compared to F-type stars - given that the home star system of humanity is one. Apparently, Earth is a statistical outlier, in this universe. Less than half the number of ELWs were found in this survey (giving a hit ratio of 1:100), and nearly half the number of TFCs. Life overall is down, with less than a quarter of stars having any lifeforms present at all.

The G-class stars surveyed were split between mass codes d and c; 119 stars were mass-code c, 81 were d. I have seen some comments from ELW hunters who are far more experienced than I, that G-class stars of code c are far less likely to give ELWs than G-class stars of code d. Of the two I found, one was in a c-code, and one in a d-code, but this sample size is way too small to make any conclusions, given the apparent overall improbability of ELWs appearing in Class G systems. This will have to await for additional sectors to be surveyed.

LIfe may be down overall, but ammonia life is, proportionally, increasing. The WW:AW:ELW ratio in this survey was 19:4:2, almost bang-on to a 10:2:1 ratio, which is in between the oft-reported 10:1:1 and my hypothesis of 10:3:1. Given that G-class stars are far more likely to be encountered than F-class stars, and that it seems reasonable for this trend of increasing proportions of ammonia worlds to be found around the as-yet-unsurveyed cooler star classes, my hypothesis has yet to be disproven. These are, however, still pitifully small sample sizes to be making any scholarly dissertations with confidence. In the life-bearing gas giants, the water:ammonia ratio is still rising, with 25:19 detected.

Surprise of the trip: I found something rather rare: a gas giant with two HMC moons around it. The vast majority of "hot moons" are of course Rocky (with the really hot ones becoming metal rich along with the planet they're orbiting), while the cold ones are mostly Icy, but the Stellar Forge does tend to split HMCs and Rocky worlds quite sharply by orbital type: HMCs are planets, while Rocky are moons. There are presumably good sciency reasons for this (rotating protoplanetary discs sucking the heavy metals into the planetary centre, leaving the debris that forms moons relatively metal-poor). So you never ever see a Rocky planet (except in hand-crafted systems like Sol), and you never see HMC moons. Well, almost never.

 

[Adequate Intelligence]

Thank you for sharing your observations. I found your commentary about the data helpful as I am not familiar with subject. It gives me idea what is what.

 

[Sapyx]

Results for Sector 1, K-class stars:

Systems surveyed: 200
Stars within systems surveyed: 381 (average number of stars per system: 1.91)
Systems with no planets, only other stars: 55 (27.5%)
"Colonizable" systems: 33 (16.5%)
"Life-bearing" systems: 45 (22.5%)
Total number of planets found: 2052
Number of ELWs discovered: 2
Number of TFCs discovered: 51
Number of Ammonia Worlds discovered: 5
Number of Water Worlds (all types): 24
Number of systems previous explored by other CMDRs: 0

Observations: The K-class survey has ended pretty much as expected, in terms of extrapolating results from previous trends in the surveys so far. Two ELWs were found, on par with the G-class survey - which again makes me think the G-class count was statistically lower than normal. The life-bearing and colonizable systems counts continue to fall, with a third as many valuable worlds found than in F-class. Curiously, those 53 colonizable worlds were found in just 33 systems, giving an average of 1.61 worlds per system - so if you find a good system it's likely to be just about as good as a larger star, it's just the baseline probability of finding that good system that's lower. Two curious things to note: both ELWs were found in the B 6 position, around an M-class secondary star, so neither of them were technically "orbiting a K-class star", though these stats are concerned about "systems", as sorted by the galaxy map filter, so it doesn't matter in that sense. Secondly, I am noting that the proportion of Waterwords that are terraformable appears to be increasing; for K-class, terraformables (13) slightly outnumber non-terraformables (11).

The stars surveyed were almost entirely mass code c (191) except for 7 code b and 2 code d included. No K-class giants were inspected, though I believe there are one or two in the sector.

The WW:AW:ELW ratio in this survey was 24:5:2, so the 10:3:1 isn't quite reached yet, though it is getting closer. In the life-bearing gas giants, ammonia worlds finally out-number waterworlds, with the ratio found to be 11:18. Oh, and I've been forgetting to make observations on the lifeless giants recently. For K-class, Class I giants (115) considerably outnumber Class III (37). This was also true for G-class stars, though with not as great a difference (ratio 103:68). For F-class, the accepted paradigm of Class III being greatest was still true (ratio 70:107). Only 21 Class IV and no Class V were found. No HRGGs or water giants were found in this survey.

Surprise of the trip: the "clumpiness" of system quality is becoming evident; as I fly my transects (which are sometimes up-down, sometimes side-to-side, sometimes diagonal), I do tend to find "strings" of half a dozen stars which are empty or just a couple of planets - then another string of the opposite, high-quality systems with plenty of planets and moons. It's happening more often than random chance alone could account for - I believe it's an actual property of the galaxy. It highlights the importance of trying as hard as possible to take "random samples".

 

[Sapyx]

Results for Sector 1, M-class stars:

Systems surveyed: 200
Stars within systems surveyed: 353 (average number of stars per system: 1.77)
Systems with no planets, only other stars: 52 (26%)
"Colonizable" systems: 6 (3%)
"Life-bearing" systems: 15 (7.5%)
Total number of planets found: 1833
Number of ELWs discovered: 0
Number of TFCs discovered: 8
Number of Ammonia Worlds discovered: 3
Number of Water Worlds (all types): 7
Number of systems previous explored by other CMDRs: 2

Observations: M-class stars are in between K class and L class in terms of interest and value to explorers, but are much closer to L class than I expected them to be. I didn't expect to find any ELWs in such a small sample size; estimates for ELW probability in M-class are between 1:200 and 1:1000. With such low numbers of interesting objects detected, the count is vulnerable to being influenced by a tiny number of abnormal systems. Example: one star system I visited had a terraformable HMC, a terraformable waterworld and a twin pair of ammonia worlds - without having scanned that single system, the statistics for those world classes would be a lot lower.

The stars surveyed were almost entirely mass code B (195) with the five remaining systems being mass code c. No M-class giants were inspected.

The WW:AW:ELW ratio in this survey was 8:3:0, which is obviously too small to make statistical conclusions from, though my prediction of a relatively high proportion of ammonia worlds seems to be supported. In the life-bearing gas giants, ammonia worlds still out-numbered waterworlds (though again with a low total count), with the ratio found to be 3:5. For the lifeless giants, the Class I count (119) easily outnumbers all other classes put together (12+6+1+0) with Class II outnumbering Class III for the first time. No HRGGs or water giants were found in this survey.

Surprise of the trip: At one stage during my K-class survey, I thought I'd glimpsed a planetary nebula while flying about, but didn't follow up on it. This time I spotted it again and this time I found it, and deviated from my transect for a photo shoot. Turns out it's a pretty hot tourist spot, for this sector anyhow, as it's an EDSM POI, with the central black hole visited by 31 CMDRs. The two "previously explored by other CMDRs" stars were two M-class stars a couple of LYs away from the nebula; apparently, I wasn't the only person to think of getting some scenic shots from those stars.

 

[Sapyx]

Well, that's it for Sector 1. I will now take a week or two's break while I fly back to known space to sell off this data; since the nearest human settlement is Colonia; I will also be detouring to the Floasly GGG as it's (almost) on my way. Meanwhile, I'll be trying to figure out how to turn this spreadsheet I've made into something publicly accessable.

 

[Sapyx]

Finally arrived in port to sell the data, so I can announce that "Sector 1" is the Thraikoo sector. It took me all day to filter out the ELW results and post them in the ELW thread, so posting some follow-up pics from the survey will have to wait until tomorrow.

 

[Sapyx]

Things to See and Do in Thraikoo

These are in order of discovery; the actual IDs of each of these planets can be found in the ELW thread. In this montage, you can clearly see the difference that star colour makes: the first five are orbiting A-class, the next five are around F-class, then two G-class, then two that are orbiting a secondary M-class in K-class primary systems. That last one I've nicknamed "Gloom" as it really is quite dark there, nearly as dark as the fabled "black hole ELWs". Here's the view from the co-orbiting terraformable HMC, which I've naturally nicknamed "Doom", then the view looking back from Gloom towards the nearest star.

Leaving the Earth-likes, we come to some other oddities and notables. This was Thraikoo BL-W b2-12 B 2, the most habitable world I found orbiting an L-class, a terraforamble waterworld with a moon at a nice scenic distance; sadly, it lacked a substantial atmosphere.

Next up: a system with twenty "planets", though some are actually stars; still, 20 is a personal best for me.

Here's one of those "backwards" systems I found, where an M-class is secondary to an L-class. As you can see, the L-class indeed has the higher mass, even though logically this should not be the case.

How about a Class 1 giant with a bunch of Class 1 giant moons, and rings all over the place?

Co-orbiting double-moons are common enough, but you don't see triple-moon arrangements too often; I found this one in Thraikoo and another enroute to Colonia:

Thraikoo doesn't have any big, flashy tourist-attraction nebulas, but it does have one small nebula, a red cats-eye planetary nebula around the Thraikoo PS-U e2-4 black hole. The nebula is an EDSM POI, named the "Thracian Nebula". Our very own Cmdr Marx has tagged and bagged most of the system, but I managed to squeeze one Mapped Tag in on an uninteresting minor planet. But here's the view from the arrival point of an M-class system just 5.91 LY away.

 

[Sapyx]

There and back again - interesting sights to and from Thraikoo:

In the Chraufao YK-P d5-26, I found my first Notable Stellar Phenomenon system. The system is probably close enough to the NGC 6871 Sector to be included in its aegis. Alas, I neglected to ensure the system name was present on the only screenshot I took - fortunately, one of the lifeforms was a Codex Confirmation entry for me:

I mentioned in the ELW thread that the ELW in the Greou Hypooe HI-Q d6-31 system has an "eccentric", highly inclined orbit. I've always found such worlds fascinating, in terms of the "what if" question for sentient life. In this case, what if human civilization had begun on this world, instead of Earth? It would have been obvious to even the ancients that all those planets were going around and around the Sun; the Copernican model would have been the standard model from the beginning of time.

A major detour on the way to Colonia was the Floasly GGG, so obviously we need some green screen time.

Finally, my ELW moon, Eorgh Flyoae UE-Y d1-20 A4a, orbiting a large HMC that is nevertheless small enough to be terraformable - a terrible place to live, but OK for some tourist pics. Here's the view of the moon, with the HMC in the background - as well as some of the Festival Grounds nebulae.

 

[Klepto]

Here's one of those "backwards" systems I found, where an M-class is secondary to an L-class. As you can see, the L-class indeed has the higher mass, even though logically this should not be the case.

How about a Class 1 giant with a bunch of Class 1 giant moons, and rings all over the place?

I found about one or two dozen of such systems as part of my Brown Dwarf operation. This should be the case for other spectral classes. From an astrophysical point of view, a more massive star may be colder due to differences in chemical composition, so I think this is correct. It would be interesting to find something similar in other spectral classes. Thank you, this topic is very interesting.

 

[Sapyx]

Okay, finally finished the B-L analyses for Sector 2, a sector in the Core just on the edge of the main Sag A - Colonia line.

Results for Sector 2, B-class stars:

Systems surveyed: 200
Stars within systems surveyed: 572 (average number of stars per system: 2.86)
Systems with no planets, only other stars: 76 (38%)
"Colonizable" systems (systems with at least one ELW or TFC): 11 (5.5%)
"Life-bearing" systems: 18 (9%)
Total number of planets found: 1462
Number of ELWs discovered: 1
Number of TFCs discovered: 18
Number of Ammonia Worlds discovered: 0
Number of Water Worlds (all types): 9
Number of systems previous explored by other CMDRs: 0

Observations: Being a Core sector, the B-type stars were densely packed enough that I was able to make proper transects across the sector, rather than point-to-point plotting. Comparing with Thraikoo, the B stars in this sector are slightly less prolific, in terms of the number of stars and planets around them, although the number of actually empty systems is down slightly. It's also slightly more life-friendly: besides the fortuitous ELW discovery (a moon orbiting the last planet in the system), the number of water-life gas giants is more than doubled (13) and there were also 3 ammonia-life giants this time around. Still no Ammonia Worlds, though. And although the number of waterworlds found was exactly the same, the proportion of terraformable Waterworlds is much lower, with only one out of the nine a CFT.

There were a few more mass-code f systems in this survey, 13 in total. Eight of these systems were barren (no planets at all), a much higher ratio than the overall average, which seems to imply that code-f B-type stars might be less likely to have planets. No helium-rich giants were found, as was expected - it is now well documented that helium-rich giants do not occur in the Core, at all. Numbers of gas giants, generally, were noticeably down: I found 355 in Thraikoo, but only 281 in Sector 2.

Despite being on a major thoroughfare, star density in the Core means that none of the systems I'd visited had prior discoverer Tags on them. The only Tags I'd seen in the entire transecting were a couple of planetary nebulae I'd used as transect terminii; those things are tourist magnets.

Surprise of the trip: has got to be the Earth-like moon, of course. Given how rare ELWs around type-B stars seem to be, I am not expecting any more for the entire project.