System map - rotating planet?!

Angus

Angus
This might just be me being incredibly inobservant, or the failing eyesight, but I've not noticed when you go to the system map that any of the planets are actually rotating. I'm looking at a system map now, 3 or 4 gas giants, with a bunch of moons, 4 inner planets of the solid variety. All of them, rock steady. Except the third one, which is spinning, darn it! Has this been here from the beginning?! :)
 

Sapyx

Sapyx
If you scan those planets in enough detail to obtain their rotation periods, you should notice that all the worlds that rotate rapidly on the system map have negative rotation periods (the planets rotate "backwards" relative to their direction of motion around their star - just like Venus in Sol system). We assume the "rapid rotation effect" has something to do with that negativity.

Worlds with retrograde rotation are rare, so worlds which "spin fast on the system map" are equally rare. And some retrograde-rotating moons are so tiny on the zoomed-out ststem map that, unless they have a radically strangely patterned surface, you won't notice.
 

Micha

Micha
Cool @Sapyx. I was wondering what those "fast rotating" bodies in the System Map mean myself.

As for negative rotation bodies, I tend to find them fairly frequently (my cockpit voice assist alerts me when I scan one) but I never paid them too much heed.

EDIT: One thing I'd love to find (but not sure it exists) is a planet/moon with a reverse orbit. The closest I found was last week which had an orbital eccentricity of -100degrees. So I guess technically it had a reverse orbit but it was almost perpendicular to the plane of the other bodies. Still, I guess it qualifies.
 

kofeyh

kofeyh
Angus said:
All of them, rock steady. Except the third one, which is spinning, darn it! Has this been here from the beginning?! :)
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Elite Dangerous; the social experiment. I regret to inform that it's been there since early in 2.x history, sir, so no, you are not going mad - at least, not from occasional rotation of planets in the system map.
 

Quantis Trap

Quantis Trap
I think I've seen this before too, but would someone please give an example of a system with a planet which is rotating fast enough to be seen on the system map?
 

CMDR Yates

C
CMDR QUANTIS TRAP said:
I think I've seen this before too, but would someone please give an example of a system with a planet which is rotating fast enough to be seen on the system map?
Click to expand...

Loads of systems have this. I can't give an example off the top of my head, but any planet that is landable (i.e. fully rendered and not just a textured sphere like atmospheric worlds) and not tidally-locked (so usually planets further from the parent star) will be visibly rotating on the system map. The system map rotation is not in real time, so it doesn't have to be rotating fast to be seen; it's just a UI animation to denote a planet that is not tidally locked.
 

Quantis Trap

Quantis Trap
Thanks guys and +rep for you responses to my question. Now I completely understand the reasoning behind this feature; even though it does seem a bit half baked.
 
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