Sapyx's ED7K Project is underway

[Sapyx]

Progress Report: Croomaa Sector rescanning project

847 systems out of 1400 rescanned (60.5% complete). Specifically, the B, A, M and L series have been completely rescanned; most of the F, G and K remain.

I have noticed a few errors that managed to creep into the hand-typed data - Class L systems entered as Class B, that sort of thing - as well as a couple of navigational errors (a few systems from the neighbouring Croomoi sector were included by accident). I will edit the summary pages above if necessary once the resurveying is complete.

 

[Darth Wonko]

Hats off for such a undertaking such a daunting task!

Fly safe, CMDR! o7

 

[Sapyx]

Well, I've nearly rescanned the Croomaa Sector worlds, so while you're all waiting for me to hurry up and move on to Sector 4, I thought I'd have a go at importing the raw data for the first three sectors into Google Sheets. Turns out it's a lot easier to do that I thought t might be, so here's the file:

ED 7K Planetary Survey

docs.google.com

So all you astrostatisticians and planetographers can have fun checking out the data for each planet type, star type and sector. And if anyone spots any errors in the data (I've spotted a handful in Croomaa, being forced to look at it all for a second time) let me know so I can get it fixed for when I release the next data set.

 

[Sapyx]

OK, time to start this ship up again. Finally Arrived in Sector 4 a week or two ago, after repeating the Croomaa Sector scans and have just finished the combined B-and-L scan.

In case you've never tried it, let me just say: there are few things more disheartening than "re-exploring": making a jump, knowing with 100% certainty that there isn't going to be anything interesting in the destination system. Re-exploring Croomaa took me twice as long as actually exploring it in the first place, simply due to lack of motivation to get in my ship and just do it. On the plus side, I found a couple of errors in the Croomaa database which will alter ever-so-slightly the stats for Croomaa. I will go back and edit the old posts once I've made these two new ones.

So, on to the first Survey results for the sector. Sector 4 I have classified as "Outer Core"; it's off to one side of the main Sag A line, so I'm not expecting as many previously-Tagged systems in this sector.

Results for Sector 4, B-class stars:

Systems surveyed: 200
Stars within systems surveyed: 538 (average number of stars per system: 2.69)
Systems with no planets, only other stars: 70 (35%)
"Colonizable" systems (systems with at least one ELW or TFC): 10 (5%)
"Life-bearing" systems: 18 (9%)
Total number of planets found: 1626
Number of ELWs discovered: 0
Number of TFCs discovered: 12
Number of Ammonia Worlds discovered: 0
Number of Water Worlds (all types): 6
Number of systems previous explored by other CMDRs: 2

Observations: The B-class stars in this sector are dead, dead, dead. All the numbers are negative: number of life-bearing planets, number of terraformables, number of colonizables all down, number of barren stars up. No ELWs or AWs once again. One of the two discovered-by-others systems was one of those tiny-fuzzy-nebula stars, which was also the only mass code g star I visited in the survey. And five out of the six Water Worlds were the non-terraformable kind.

There were 15 mass-code f systems in this survey; they seemed to become more common in the lower fringe of the sector, down where the Neutron Star layer lies in this sector. Perhaps it's simply that "Regular" B-class stars are less frequent down there, making f-code systems proportionately more probable to encounter.

The gas giant ratio here is 3:7:194:86:13, with a WBL:WBL ratio of 11:2. I do not know if this sector's locale on "the Outer Core" is in an area that precludes helium-rich giants, but I've found none in this sector so far.

All in all, a very mundane survey..

Surprise of the trip: This small innermost moon of a gas giant has a (relatively) large moonmoon of its own, in a super-tight orbit - must be nearly at the Roche limit. Found by the ever-helpful Elite Observatory, of course - or as I like to call it, "my science officer". I hope you all enjoy this photo of my SRV parked by a fumarole on the moonmoon, because it's the last you'll see of my SRV before I return to port once this sector is complete. Apparently, I parked it a little too close to that mostly-harmless-looking fumarole there. Took some time getting the angle of the photo just right, then I switched over to the forums for a couple of minutes. By the time I came back, I was sitting in my ship in orbit, and an empty SRV bay that tells me I still have 82% fuel left in my non-existent SRV. My Asp only has room for one SRV on board, so I guess I'm now stuck in the ship for the duration.

 

[Sapyx]

Results for Sector 4, L-class stars:

Systems surveyed: 200
Stars within systems surveyed: 294 (average number of stars per system: 1.47)
Systems with no planets, only other stars: 50 (25%)
"Colonizable" systems: 0 (0%)
"Life-bearing" systems: 8 (4%)
Total number of planets found: 1593
Number of ELWs discovered: 0
Number of TFCs discovered: 0
Number of Ammonia Worlds discovered: 0
Number of Water Worlds (all types): 2
Number of systems previous explored by other CMDRs: 0

Observations: Being a Lower sector in the Galactic Plane, Sector 4 includes the Brown Dwarf Disc, so there's been no shortage of L-class stars to survey. I did, however, notice the brown dwarf coverage was very patchy: some subsectors were chock-full of L-class stars, others were largely devoid of them. However, this L-class survey is one of the more monotonous results sets I have yet created. No terraformables, no metal-rich, precious few HMCs or other valuable worlds - the vast majority of systems were either empty or had the typical "string of iceballs" we've al come to associate with the colder star classes. None of these L-class stars were previously explored.

Mass code breakdown is about 50:50, with 96 mass code b, and 104 code a. No higher codes this time, as this sector isn't in the Cross of Suppression.

Gas giant counts were up, and added to the breaks in monotony for the survey. 72 gas giants, of which 65 were Class I. More surprising is the life-bearing count, which helped bump up the overall life-bearing stat to the highest of any L-class survey: 3 WBLs and 3 ABLs.

Surprise of the trip: Since the L-class survey was so un-surprising, I will report an item of general surprise here: the number of planetary nebulae. I've just about run out of bookmarks pinpointing them all - by "all" I mean "four of them". I'm assuming there are a few more I haven't spotted yet. All previously Tagged, of course, though one of them just has the central star tagged and not the planets.

 

[Sapyx]

Results for Sector 4, A-class stars:

Systems surveyed: 200
Stars within systems surveyed: 408 (average number of stars per system: 2.04)
Systems with no planets, only other stars: 50 (25%)
"Colonizable" systems: 55 (27.5%)
"Life-bearing" systems: 59 (29.5%)
Total number of planets found: 2312
Number of ELWs discovered: 3
Number of TFCs discovered: 106
Number of Ammonia Worlds discovered: 4
Number of Water Worlds (all types): 41
Number of systems previously explored by other CMDRs: 1

Had some trouble with the hyperdrive motivator stranding me in normal space for a while (OOC translation: I lost high-speed internet for about a week due to storm damage) so this survey is even later than expected.

Overall, Sector 4 A-class star systems were more "normal" than the previous sector, Croomaa, and a lot "deader" than average, in terms of colonizable systems, life-bearing systems and total numbers of terraformables. The high proportion of Water worlds is back down to "normal " levels at 41 total, with the terraformable breakdown at 26:15. Or, on other words, I was down about ten terraformable waterworlds, compared to Croomaa. The numbers of AW and Earth-likes were identical, giving a total ratio for A class stars in the Project to date at 169:18:15, which minimizes down to 11.2:1.2:1 - very close to 10:1:1.

In life-bearing gas giants, the ratio in this survey is 30:6, both numbers also down. The Sudarsky non-life-bearing giants, the stats are 32:44:137:32:0 plus five water giants. I had hoped to be far enough outside the Core to detect some HRGGs, at least on the outermost edge of the sector's cube, but none have turned up so far. I'd also note the general rarity of Class V planets around Class A stars - so far, I have found a grand total of 1, in the 800 such systems surveyed.

There were 19 mass code e systems in this survey, noticeably more than in the previous sector. Only one system was previously explored, once again a random system with no planets. CMDR's name came up as "Validating", so I don't know who you are. On that subject, one thing I had just observed, while visiting a non-class-A waypoint during this survey: if you have a "Validating" name on an Discovered but Unmapped planet, and you Map the planet, the Validating resolves and the actual CMDR name appears. This happens immediately, whether you sell the data or not.

Surprise of the trip: one of my ELWs was ringed; this brings the total number of Ringed ELWs in the Project to 2, and my personal total to 3. Two out of 45 ELWs so far for the Project seems rather high; my own personal ratio is now three out of 158, which is much closer to the 2% figure often mentioned.

 

[Sapyx]

Results for Sector 4, F-class stars:

Systems surveyed: 200
Stars within systems surveyed: 393 (average number of stars per system: 1.97)
Systems with no planets, only other stars: 58 (29%)
"Colonizable" systems: 47 (23.5%)
"Life-bearing" systems: 72 (36%)
Total number of planets found: 2664
Number of ELWs discovered: 1
Number of TFCs discovered: 109
Number of Ammonia Worlds discovered: 3
Number of Water Worlds (all types): 44
Number of systems previous explored by other CMDRs: 1

Observations: The stats for this sector are very, very similar than those for Croomaa, with just one notable difference: there was only one ELW this time. This is the first time that the counts for ELWs in the F and A surveys have been different, and it made for a rather demotivating survey indeed. The number of TFCs is up slightly, whereas the number of colonizable systems is down a little; this means that, while there may be fewer "gems" in this survey, the gems are of higher quality. An example of a "quality gem" is the sole Earth-like system, which had a terraformable WW and two other HMC terraformables. The only system already Tagged, and that only partially, was a system that happened to lie inside a planetary nebula generated by a neutron star sitting a fraction of a LY away. Finding a second star system inside a PN probably isn't too uncommon in these Outer Core regions, but it was the first time I had noticed such a thing.

All the systems surveyed were mass code d. The WW:AW:ELW ratio in this survey was 44:3:1; the lack of ELWs despite the abundance of WWs has skewed the ratios for this sector quite noticeably. The overall ratio across the four completed sectors of the Project for F-class stars is now 151:23:13. The Waterworld breakdown was 24 non-terraformable to 20 terraformable, again a fairly even split. Gas giants were overall more numerous: The Sudarsky ratios were 98:43:117:14:3 - once again those Class V giants are turning up in the F-class survey when none were seen in the A-class; one of those three Class Vs was a very impressive sun-skimming Hot Jupiter, sitting right at the 5 Ls arrival point distance; if you happened to approach the system from the wrong angle you might get a nasty surprise. In life-bearing giants, the water/ammonia ratio was 44:19, which is greater than 2:1 this time. Water Giant count: 7 again.

I have now done 5000 out of the target 7000 star systems. To put that in perspective, my total visited systems counter is now at 23715. I'm also almost at the million-lightyears-travelled milestone (987188).

Surprise of the trip: I am back in Helium-Rich-GIant territory after all; a single transited boxel in the centre of the sector turned up two out of three stars having HRGGs, giving a total count of 4 HRGGs in this survey and bringing the Project total up to 19. Or in other words, HRGGs have been 2.4 times scarcer than Earth-like planets.

 

[Sapyx]

Results for Sector 4, G-class stars:

Systems surveyed: 200
Stars within systems surveyed: 380 (average number of stars per system: 1.90)
Systems with no planets, only other stars: 53 (26.5%)
"Colonizable" systems: 49 (24.5%)
"Life-bearing" systems: 71 (35.5%)
Total number of planets found: 2579
Number of ELWs discovered: 2
Number of TFCs discovered: 90
Number of Ammonia Worlds discovered: 6
Number of Water Worlds (all types): 33
Number of systems previous explored by other CMDRs: 1

Observations: And we're almost "back to normal" with this G-class survey, with all vital statistics higher except for one: the number of Earth-likes, which remains low; the sector total now stands at an underwhelming I found two almost one after the other, in systems numbered 90 and 94. But that long ELW drought, of over 250 systems between F class system #32 to G class #90, was tough going. Oh, and one of those two ELWs in this survey was another ringed one, which brings my personal total of ringed ELWs to 4 out of 168 first discoveries.

Mass code d outnumbered c considerably once again, with a ratio of 138:62 and no other mass-codes visited in the survey. The two ELWs were both in mass code d. The only system previously explored was a system right next door to a planetary nebula centre star; it was so close, it was actually inside the nebula as well.

The WW:AW:ELW ratio is 33:6:2; with one more ELW, that would have been a neat 10:2:1. The waterworld terraformability ratio was 15 NT : 18 T, more terraformables than not this time round. In the life-bearing gas giants, the numbers are up again at 37:26 with water-based life still dominating, and the Sudarsky ratios were 118:31:72:9:0 with Class I still dominating.

Surprise of the trip: in a sector with few surprises, a star system with 99 sensor hits and 84 detected bodies stood out the most.That's the second-largest system found in the Project (with a system in the Thraikoo A survey hitting 89 bodies still the survey record-holder). 81 worlds... and not a single ELW, AW, WW or terraformable amongst them.

 

[Sapyx]

Results for Sector 4, K-class stars:

Systems surveyed: 200
Stars within systems surveyed: 371 (average number of stars per system: 1.85)
Systems with no planets, only other stars: 50 (25%)
"Colonizable" systems: 37 (18.5%)
"Life-bearing" systems: 76 (38%)
Total number of planets found: 2491
Number of ELWs discovered: 4
Number of TFCs discovered: 65
Number of Ammonia Worlds discovered: 3
Number of Water Worlds (all types): 34
Number of systems previous explored by other CMDRs: 0

Observations: This was the best survey in the sector, and the best K-class survey in the project, so far. Those 4 Earth-likes nearly double the number of K-class ELWs for the Project, and brings the total ELW count for the sector up to 10. None of the new ELWs were anything particularly noteworthy. It's a generally wetter survey, with a large increase in the number of Water Worlds, compared to previous sectors; for the first time, the count of waterworlds was the same in K-class as it was in G-class. The terraformability ratio was 16 yes:18 no, not too far from the 1:1 previously observed. And for the first time in the Project, a terraformable rocky moon was found in a K-class system.

The mass codes for this survey were more "normal", being almost exclusively mass code c; there were three code b, and seven code d, and no other codes. This time, I didn't happen to hit any K-class giant stars. Nor did I stumble upon any stars previously explored.

The WW:AW:ELW ratio in this survey was 34:3:4, the third time in the Project when Ammonia Worlds were out-numbered by Earth-likes (the others being Wepooe-G and Thraikoo-A). Gas Giants overall were more common than usual in this survey; the life-bearing gas giants were more common than usual, at a ratio of 38:22, while the Sudarsky ratios were 145:33:50:0:0, with no "hot giants" this time around. Still no water giants. And no helium-rich giants either, despite finding one system in the F survey.

Surprise of the trip: those three higher-than-normal statistics - ELWs, Water Worlds and life-bearing giants - combine together to give this survey the highest ever proportion of systems with some kind of life in them: at 76 systems, or 38%. Other surveys have come close, but not a K-class survey, which are on average much more lifeless. This survey alone has bumped up the Project average probability for K-class stars to have life, from 22.3% up to 26.3%.

 

[Sapyx]

Results for Sector 4, M-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: 50 (25%)
"Colonizable" systems: 15 (7.5%)
"Life-bearing" systems: 24 (12%)
Total number of planets found: 2122
Number of ELWs discovered: 0
Number of TFCs discovered: 18
Number of Ammonia Worlds discovered: 1
Number of Water Worlds (all types): 11
Number of systems previous explored by other CMDRs: 0

Observations: A much more "average" M-class survey than for Croomaa (survey #3). No ELWs, as expected, and just one AW. 2122 planets were detected (giving an average of 10.61 planets per system, of which 1466 were iceballs.

For the mass codes in this survey, this time, mass code b was clearly dominant with 141 systems, followed by just 45 in mass code c. The Brown Dwarf disc at the top of the Sector contains M-stars as well, so 9 mass-code a systems were included in the surveys as well. Red Giants were less common in this survey, with only 4 mass code d stars, all red giants which were all down near the lower face of the sector. No systems were previously explored by another CMDR.

The WW:AW:ELW ratio in this survey was 11:1:0, which puts the new ratio from combining all four M-class surveys at 36:7:1, further enhancing the "M class are ammonia-rich" effect. In the life-bearing gas giants, the ratio of 13:4 continued the bias towards water-based life; the Sudarsky ratios were found to be 130:17:8:0:0, with no "Hot Jupiters" and Class 1 remain dominant.

Surprise of the trip: I'm really stretching it to find anything of note this time through. There wasn't even much that the Science Officer thought worthy of reporting, in terms of odd orbits and such. The best I can do is this system, one of the Red Giants: that second star is a normal G-class star, not much less massive than the giant, and in a super-close orbit whizzing about not far above the red giant's surface (co-orbital period: 27.9 days). Didn't take a pic through the window while I was there, but noticed it as I was flying around the giant to get to the next waypoint.

It may be a while before the sector reveal posts, as I will be heading back to the Bubble before going over to Sector 5.

 

[Sapyx]

And now, the big reveal. This is probably terrible timing, with everyone wanting to watch and discuss the imminent Fleet Carrier announcement rather than read an exploration survey summary, but here goes.

Sector 4 was the "Outer Core" LYCHOITL Sector, just South of the core and slightly East of the direct Bubble-Sag A-Beagle line. About three-quarters of the Lychoitl sector is in the Empyrean Straits region, the remaining Southernmost quarter is in Norma Arm. Once again, my ELW montage of discovered worlds has all worlds shown at 20.0 Mm distance and with the orbital plane made the horizontal axis. The two ringed worlds found in this Sector have parts of their rings visible int he postcard montage...

Getting There... From Sag A*

A couple of interesting features were found travelling from Explorer's Anchorage to Lychoitl. Of personal interest, to me, was of course the otherwise utterly unremarkable Shrogea OI-B d13-12 system, a sextuple-star system which I have dubbed "Doom of Erebus": this is the contact binary system I jumped into just as the IRL phone rang; by the time I got off the line, I was watching the rebuy screen. After arriving at roughly the indicated position, it only took a few minutes for the heat to turn my battered, zero-integrity Erebus into a tiny ball of molten slag.

Also enroute and potentially of interest to tourists, or even those on the long boring Sag A or Beagle Point runs, a binary ELW system in the Dumbooe Sector: Dumbooe JA-A d4841, planets 10 and 11. The planets aren't really close enough together for majestic double-ELW scenery, and given the Outer Core star-filled background, the sister planet can even be a bit hard to see from each other. But, with a bunch of other terraformables in the system (including a triplet of HMCs), this is now the most valuable system I have ever scanned - and I didn't even map any of the terraformables. In the shot below, planet 11 is up front, while 10 is the pale blue dot indicated on the left in the background.

...From Sol

A key feature of the return trip for me was the Pipe(Stem) Trojan ELW, but as that has been discussed abundantly elsewhere, I won't mention it further. The only other noteworthy object found on the way home was al ELW that I would class as a reasonable "Tatooine Analogue": Pyramio AR-T d4-17. A hot desert planet, with twin suns. These two stars are both redder than the "real" Tatooine, and there's a distant third sun (actually the system's primary star), so it's not a perfect match - with dim red suns, the place is just too darn dark and gloomy to be Tatooine. It also has a moon, and a rather high axial tilt, neither of which are known to apply to Tatooine.

Things to See and Do in Lychoitl

Besides the ELWs montaged above, there are plenty of other ELWs in the sector, including some Neutron Star Worlds. There are no Great Nebulae in the sector but there are seven planetary nebulae found, as well as a couple just outside the sector boundaries. One of those outsiders in particular, Eeshorks VP-O e6-133, was interesting to me as it was an atypical-seeming planetary nebula, being a miniature "irregular" nebula rather than the usual symmetrical cats-eyes or hourglasses:

One rather extreme planet was found in the Lychoitl UK-V d3-2629 system: a Class V Hot Jupiter orbiting the G class primary star skimming along just a few Ls above the fiery surface, well within prominence range. I reckon it's at about the Arrival distance, so theoretically if you aimed and timed it just right, and the FSD failsafes failed you, you could Arrive inside the planet. With all my Lychoitl and re-scanned Croomaa data onboard, I wasn't in any position to experiment, but I notice that, either by accident or design, I happened to Arrive in the system at 90 degrees to the planet's orbital plane.

 

[Sapyx]

It's been a long, long time since I updated this survey. I spent far too long "weeding" my BGS garden. In the end, I had to say hang it all, let the weeds take over for a few months so I can get back out there doing what I really enjoy - and finally finish this job I started over a year ago.

So, after leaving the Bubble a week ago (and having another contact-binary-star-of-death AFK episode, fortunately with only two day's worth of data which was easily rescannable), I have finally arrived on-station in Sector 5, deep in the poorly developed Eastern spiral arms of the galaxy and am ready to resume proper survey work. It's a long weekend here in 21st century Brisbane, so I'm hoping to get the full L-B twin survey of 400 stars completed by Monday.

 

[Sapyx]

OK, took slightly longer than anticipated - partly because of a couple of very interesting finds in the combined B-L survey.

Results for Sector 5, B-class stars:

Systems surveyed: 200
Stars within systems surveyed: 509 (average number of stars per system: 2.55)
Systems with no planets, only other stars: 69 (34.5%)
"Colonizable" systems (systems with at least one ELW or TFC): 17 (8.5%)
"Life-bearing" systems: 16 (8%)
Total number of planets found: 1492
Number of ELWs discovered: 1
Number of TFCs discovered: 28
Number of Ammonia Worlds discovered: 1
Number of Water Worlds (all types): 11
Number of systems previous explored by other CMDRs: 7

Observations: The B-class stars in this sector are much livelier than in previous surveys. The obvious standout find is the ELW, my second in the project for B-class stars. The ELW is orbiting a distant secondary A-class star so it's effectively an A-class ELW, but hey, with a B-class primary star it still counts as a B. Another perhaps just as significant a find is the ammonia world, a first for the Project around B-class stars. This ammonia world was in a "captured rogue" orbit, eccentric and highly inclined, around a distant secondary B class star, so probably not a native to the system.

All other key colonizable stats are up, with twice as many TFCs and water worlds as the previous sector and more in line with the stats for the other three sectors. The water world terraformability breakdown was 7 non : 4 yes, showing once again that waterworlds around B class stars tend not to be terraformable; the odds of creating a giant WW are much higher around these stars.

Most stars were mass code e; there were only four mass-code f systems in this survey and no other codes detected. Code f may have been more common in the lower fringes of the sector far from the central disc, but it was really difficult getting good data for either B or L stars that far Down, as those classes were truly thin on the ground down there. I had to pass through about 70 out-of-sync star systems just to complete a transect in the lower reaches of the sector, which also increased the survey time.

The gas giant ratio here is 1:8:160:77:14, slightly down overall, with a WBL:ABL ratio of 5:0. No helium-rich giants were detected.

Surprise of the trip: has got to be that ELW. I've been told that ELWs around B class stars are rather rare; to find two out of 1000 B class stars might seriously skew my stats.

 

[Sapyx]

Results for Sector 5, L-class stars:

Systems surveyed: 200
Stars within systems surveyed: 313 (average number of stars per system: 1.57)
Systems with no planets, only other stars: 46 (23%)
"Colonizable" systems: 1 (0.5%)
"Life-bearing" systems: 4 (2%)
Total number of planets found: 1567
Number of ELWs discovered: 0
Number of TFCs discovered: 2
Number of Ammonia Worlds discovered: 1
Number of Water Worlds (all types): 3
Number of systems previous explored by other CMDRs: 0

Observations: Another rather dull brown dwarf survey and again, no ELWs detected. Given that other CMDRs who are specifcally surveying brown dwarf systems for ELWs are reporting needing to survey over 10000 systems to find one, my odds of actually finding an ELW in the 1000 brown dwarf systems of the Project were always going to be small. So, that was disappointing but unsurprising. Even TFCs were down; if it were not for that single star system with a pair of TFCs in it, this would have been another zero-colonizables survey report.

This sector also included the Brown Dwarf Disc, with about a quarter of the surveyed stars being within the Disc; the precise mass code breakdown was 55:145. Again, no other codes were encountered as this sector is far from the Cross of Suppression.

The exciting coincidence for this survey is the discovery of the first (and last) brown dwarf ammonia world. "Coincidence", because this sector also harbours my first (and last) ammonia world for B class stars too, as noted in my previous post. I had originally suspected that ammonia worlds might be lurking in abundance in L class systems and had so far been disappointed in not finding any. One's better than none, but my theory has been well and truly squashed. Brown dwarfs are, on average, simply too dang cold even for ammonia -based life to be commonplace.

Surprise of the trip: Besides the ammonia world, two other systems stood out from the usual string-of-iceball mundaneness. One was a system that looked surprisingly "normal": two inner HMCs, and eight gas giants each with broad strings of moons. With 43 worlds total to be scanned, it was much bigger than a standard L-class system. The second system of note was a radically different one: three brown dwarfs in a close, intricate co-orbital dance, with a single large super-hot lava-ball just 6 Ls from the primary. It's not easy for brown dwarfs, even acting in concert, to get a HMC planet heated up to 1824 K, but these guys managed it.

 

[Sapyx]

Alas, I am only two-thirds of my way through the A-class survey (and it's a good one so far - four ELWs) but I must call a break for a couple of weeks as family duties require me to go AFK.

 

[Sapyx]

Results for Sector 5, A-class stars:

Systems surveyed: 200
Stars within systems surveyed: 389 (average number of stars per system: 1.95)
Systems with no planets, only other stars: 49 (24.5%)
"Colonizable" systems: 63 (31.5%)
"Life-bearing" systems: 61 (30.5%)
Total number of planets found: 1937
Number of ELWs discovered: 6
Number of TFCs discovered: 112
Number of Ammonia Worlds discovered: 3
Number of Water Worlds (all types): 47
Number of systems previously explored by other CMDRs: 10 (plus two more reported to EDSM)

Finally, back in the cockpit to finish the A class survey. And the results are pretty good:

Sector 5 is "above average" in terms of valuable planets. Those six Earth-likes are well above average (and with no binary ELWs to pad the count) and include an ELW moon and a ringed ELW, and the Water world counts are also high. The terraformable breakdown at 21T:26NT is again close to 50:50. The total terraformables count is up, too. The only "valuable worlds" below average were the Ammonia worlds. The survey ELW:AW:WW ratio was 6:3:47, which is near enough to 2:1:5 - a much higher proportion of ELWs to average, and giving a final result for the thousand A-class stars of the Project at 21:21:216 - almost exactly a 1:1:10 ratio, giving credence to the ratio reported by others. However, the ELW:AW ratio falls dramatically for cooler stars, so I still maintain that AWs vastly out-number ELWs in the galaxy.

In the realm of gas giants, the life-bearing ratio in this survey is 23:3, reflecting the dearth of ammonia-based life in this sector. Gas giant numbers were generally low; the Sudarsky non-life-bearing giant ratio is 18:26:88:18:1 plus two water giants. Once again, no Helium-Rich giants were found, despite being well outside the Core. The sector is on the edge of a spiral arm, so perhaps it's too "deep-space" for HRGGs as they tend to be found only in the densest parts of the arms.

Most of the systems visited were mass code d, as usual for A class stars.There were only 6 mass code e systems in this survey, way down from the previous sector, and no other mass codes were observed. A far larger number of already-explored systems were found than in any other survey prior to this - 6% of the stars I visited were either already Tagged, or had been previously reported to EDSM.

Surprise of the trip: ringed ELWs are no longer "surprising", as with one more found in this Survey I have now found three of them in the Project. ELW Moons are "unsurprising" too; though the one found in this Survey is the Project's first, I have found four ELW moons prior to beginning the Project. So I guess that just leaves this lonely, barren world in an extremely eccentric orbit around survey target star #172 - at an eccentricity of 0.9973, my science officer tells me it's a personal best.

 

[Sapyx]

Results for Sector 5, F-class stars:

Systems surveyed: 200
Stars within systems surveyed: 374 (average number of stars per system: 1.87)
Systems with no planets, only other stars: 45 (22.5%)
"Colonizable" systems: 64 (32%)
"Life-bearing" systems: 64 (32%)
Total number of planets found: 2160
Number of ELWs discovered: 6
Number of TFCs discovered: 113
Number of Ammonia Worlds discovered: 5
Number of Water Worlds (all types): 37
Number of systems previous explored by other CMDRs: 4 (plus 3 more reported to EDSM).

Observations: It's another bumper crop of ELWs, with six found - including my first ever system where there were two non-binary Earthlikes (planets 3 and 4, not orbiting each other). And it's another example of the power of famine-and-feast statistical clustering, because the first 124 systems I scanned prior to finding that double-ELW system had no ELWs; those six ELWs all occurred in the last 76 systems I scanned. There's still a large number of already-discovered systems, though perhaps skewed slightly as I used the only AA-A h system in the entire sector as one of my nav waypoints and a couple of the stars within 50 LY of that waypoint were already Tagged, including one system Tagged by the same CMDR who had also Tagged the AA-A h black hole.

Once again, all the systems surveyed were mass code d. The WW:AW:ELW ratio in this survey was 37:5:6. The Waterworld breakdown was 21 non-terraformable to 16 terraformable. Gas giant numbers were quite low: the Sudarsky ratios were 53:24:69:9:1 - about the same ratios as in Lychoitl, but with numbers nearly half the size. Finally, I can report the discovery of a single HRGG-bearing system in the sector, with 2 HRGG planets out of four giants present. In life-bearing giants, the water/ammonia ratio was 32:19, which is greater than 2:1 this time. Water Giant count: 7 again. Preliminary observation: Water Giants seem to be just slightly more common than ELWs in the star types where they occur, but unlike ELWs they are almost exclusively found in A, F and G stars.

Surprise of the trip: I suppose that double-ELW system, since it was the first such system I have ever found in my career of 183 first-discovered ELWs.

 

[Sapyx]

Results for Sector 5, G-class stars:

Systems surveyed: 200
Stars within systems surveyed: 379 (average number of stars per system: 1.85)
Systems with no planets, only other stars: 63 (31.5%)
"Colonizable" systems: 49 (24.5%)
"Life-bearing" systems: 52 (26%)
Total number of planets found: 2066
Number of ELWs discovered: 2
Number of TFCs discovered: 89
Number of Ammonia Worlds discovered: 1
Number of Water Worlds (all types): 32
Number of systems previous explored by other CMDRs: 1

Observations: Another fairly "normal" G-class survey overall, though again, we're seeing some serious statistical clustering within the survey; the final 50 stars containing far more than their fair share of interesting subjects. That generally low planet count and the much larger than normal number of "empty stars" vouches for this observation. The main difference with this survey, compared to others, is the low count of Ammonia worlds, with just the one found. It's also interesting to note the drop off in pre-discovered systems, compared to the A and F stars just surveyed; clearly, most of the folks transiting this sector are doing so with G class stars filtered out. The only previously discovered system had just the central star Tagged and none of the distant stars or planets, so I assume it's an old Tag.

Mass code c outnumbered d by a fairly large margin this time, with a ratio of 81:119 and no other mass-codes visited in the survey. The two ELWs were split, one in each code. The WW:AW:ELW ratio this time round is 32:1:2 which will considerably bring down the ammonia fraction in the final results. The waterworld terraformability ratio was 13 NT : 19 T, that's even more terraformables than not this time round. In the life-bearing gas giants, the numbers are way down at 22:12 with water-based life nearly at 2:1 ratio, and the Sudarsky ratios were 91:24:58:2:0, again down but with Class I still dominating. Just 2 water giants, and no Heliums.

Surprise of the trip: again, I'm running out of surprising things to report. The most surprising thing about one of the Earthlikes I found was the near-90-degree axial tilt combined with a reported "tidal lock". Sorry, but no. You can't tidally lock a planet and have it rock back and forth nearly 180 degrees in its orbit. That's not "locked". But, the Stellar Forge routinely gets this wrong, so it isn't really all that surprising.

 

[Eahlstan]

Maybe you're thinking of 'synchronous rotation' rather than 'tidal locking'?

Tidally Locked, Highly Eccentric Orbits

I have a question that I'm hoping someone can answer for me. Is it possible, in reality, to have a body with an orbit that is both highly eccentric and tidally locked? I don't have a great understanding of orbital mechanics, just what I have taught myself, but my understanding makes me think...

forums.frontier.co.uk

 

[schlowi123]

OMG, you are still at at, I hope you publish the detailed data at the end. This could become a kind of confirmed reference to estimate the galactic properties.