The Kepler Trail...

pippo · Jul 2, 2017

Howdy Commanders,

I was looking for a cool short-range(ish) exploration trip and I came up with this idea: Visiting every star from the Kepler catalogue.
I wanted to leave from Sol but as I've cleared my save (again) I don't have access to the Sol System anymore, so I picked the next best choice: Alpha Centauri, and while I was at it: Hutton Orbital.

I'm sitting inside my still loaned out Sidewinder "Globule"

Ready for departure...

I'll be typing and cycling the word "Kepler" in the search engine in the Galaxy Map and see where it takes me.
First stop: Kepler-10

Wish me luck, I'll keep you guys posted!

CMDR SP3CK
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Index:

Kepler-10 (First Discovered by Cmdr Zephyrrial)
Kepler-11 (First Discovered by Cmdr Massey)
Kepler-33 (First Discovered by Cmdr Farlo Galt)
Kepler-100 (First Discovered by Cmdr ChrisP)
Kepler-101 - Failed
Kepler-164 (Fisrt Discovered by Cmdr JohnBhoy)
Kepler-104 (First Discovered by Cmdr Wups)
Kepler-105 (First Discovered by Cmdr Wups)
Kepler-107 (First Discovered by Cmdr Wups)
Kepler-108 (Fisrt Discovered by Cmdr JohnBhoy)
Kepler-110 (First Discovered by Cmdr Wups)

imgur album

Rustnsawdust · Jul 2, 2017

Nice idea. Keep us up to date with your progress - I have no idea whether a 'Kepler' search will work. Does the galaxy map give you alternative names/descriptions for kepler objects?

pippo · Jul 2, 2017

Kepler-10

As expected, I found a main star very similar to Sol (Class G), albeit a little smaller.
Sadly, no Earth-like World, not even a Water World. In fact, there is no planet anywhere near where an Earth-like should be in this System (about 500Ls from the main star).
If anything, it should have been located a bit further away from this large High Metal Content planet, completely scorched by it's close orbit with Kepler-10 (just over 115Ls)...

It's interesting to note that this world is tidally locked to Kepler-10, which seems (from above at least) to give it two distinct hemispheres... I wonder, by the look of it, if one of those hemisphere is not actually melted, like some weird metallic sea.

Here is the System Map for those interested (with credits where it's due, and the first discovery tag)

Just for the hell of it, let's compare it with what we find on Wikipedia:

Not bad, hey?

Next stop: Kepler-100

CMDR SP3CK
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Rustnsawdust said:
Nice idea. Keep us up to date with your progress - I have no idea whether a 'Kepler' search will work. Does the galaxy map give you alternative names/descriptions for kepler objects?

Thanks for your support, Commander.
To answer your question, yes, and it's rather easy. If you type Kepler in the search bar and click the "Send" button, the Galmap will send you to Kepler-10 (where I am now) but if you click on the "Send" button a second time, it'll send you to the next best result (Kepler-100 in this case, our next stop

)
I didn't check how many entries came up with the "Kepler" word, to keep it interesting, might be a dozen of stars, might be thousands... We shall see!

pippo · Jul 2, 2017

Kepler-100

I think I could get used to this. Not the Class G stars about the size of Sol... But rather the absence of Earth-like Worlds:

[where is it]

Curiosity: this Class III Gas Giant:

I had to travel there to take a closer look as it is orbiting almost exactly where an Earth-like World would be orbiting.
This Gas Giant (Kepler-100 3) has a mass of just over 300 times that of Earth, and with a Radius of 71,000km, is very similar to Jupiter in our Sol System.
It does revolves around Kepler-100 in a bit less than 400 days. I wonder if 2000 years ago, those Earthlings who were pointing their Kepler telescope to this point in space believed they'd found a giant Earth... probably not.

No Earth-like World, no Water-World, so be it.
Maybe next stop: Kepler-101

This one looks a bit isolated, might be getting trickier...

CMDR SP3CK
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And for the hell of it, the relevant link to the Exoplanet Catalogue

pippo · Jul 2, 2017

I had a feeling this one was going to get tricky to reach.
Only after a few hundreds light years forward and I had to abandon the scoopable star filter in order to continue... too many T Tauri type Stars in the region.
Every so often, I would be scrubbing the Galaxy Map around Kepler-101 to look for Neutron Stars to give me the final push... without luck.

Once in the 1000Ly range, I could safely say I was not going to reach my destination.
With "Globule" not carrying a Detailed Surface Scanner, I will probably need some time and even more luck to gather the much needed Jumponium soup ingredients.

I decided to carry on regardless, getting as close as I possibly could to figure out exactly what I will need to reach Kepler-101.

Then,

Out of nowhere, this next waypoint showed up in the middle of my current plotted route:

Unexpected to say the least.
There might be a lot more Kepler entries than I anticipated.
Great news!

CMDR SP3CK
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pippo · Jul 2, 2017

Kepler-33

From what I gather from Wikipedia, the first four planets are meant to be extremely close to their host star:

And this is what we're finding over there:

In fact, every planets in this System beside the furthest Gas Giant along with its satellites manage a full revolution in less than 5 days (one year on Kepler-33 1 lasts only 1.1 days... makes my head spin just thinking about it)

For those who love numbers more than I do, here's a link with an extensive description of the System.

While you smart people make sense of it all, I'll be sitting on this little moon (Kepler-33 8a) figuring out what's next...

CMDR SP3CK
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Aura Lorell · Jul 2, 2017

There are hundreds of Kepler stars in the Elite galaxy. At some point I surveyed over 80 of them. Most are in places where you'd need jumponium and a good jump range on your ship.

pippo · Jul 6, 2017

Seems to me the next system will be the closest I can get to Kepler-101, just 200Ly short.
Looks like I'm going to need a 40Ly jump range to reach Kepler-101, maybe less but that is pure speculation at this point.

Good news is that next system is an interesting one for this journey:

Next stop: Kepler-164

CMDR SP3CK
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Rhea Lorell said:
There are hundreds of Kepler stars in the Elite galaxy. At some point I surveyed over 80 of them. Most are in places where you'd need jumponium and a good jump range on your ship.

So it seems, Cmdr.
These should keep me busy for a while, for sure. I'm bookmarking the "unreachable" ones, see if I feel like visiting them at a later date, with the right materials, or worst case scenario, with a better ship!

pippo · Jul 6, 2017

Kepler-164

The Open Exoplanet Catalogue does list 3 planets in this system, sadly, what I'm looking at now is not quite as "Earth-like" as described in the catalogue.
I wonder if I should submit a mistake to these guys!
Here's the System Map:

So, there might not be the hot prospects in just the right places, yet a little further away from the star, quite a bit further away in fact, sits a lovely Water World...

It wasn't all for nothing at least!

Next stop: Kepler-104

Back in the SIFI Sector...

CMDR SP3CK
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GreenViper · Jul 6, 2017

Great idea Cmdr!
Fly safe and keep us posted of your progress

pippo · Jul 11, 2017

Kepler-104

Another leg, another G type Star... Shiney!

Here's the System Map, to compare with the Exoplanet Catalogue:

The orbital period and masses seem to match again.
I wonder sometimes if Frontier sat an intern in front of a computer at some point, and a spreadsheet to add to the game, if so, your work hasn't gone unnoticed, mate!

It's funny how I would have thought Gas Giants so close to the host star to be a somewhat rare occurrence, but this trip is proving me wrong, it would seem.
I decided to head to Kepler-104d (or 4, rather) just because I like the look of it... and zipping past the 2nd plant first, another Gas Giant, Class III that one, about the size of Neptune and Uranus...

Kepler-104 4; Once again, I wish I had a Surface Scanner that could give me more information on the composition of this Class IV and maybe explain this green reflection...

Here's a view of the same planet, bathed by the main star light, this time...

Next stop is just around the corner: Kepler-105

CMDR SP3CK
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GreenViper said:
Great idea Cmdr!
Fly safe and keep us posted of your progress

Cheers, GreenViper! Thanks for the support!

pippo · Jul 14, 2017

Kepler-105

And once again, a bunch (2) of Gas Giants in close orbit...

Who would have thought...

Some numbers along with the System Map, for the nerds:

It does sort of match... again.

This Class IV in the distance caught my attention again, as displayed the same texture as the previous one...

And again, the G type host star is glowing with a green(ish) colour throughout it and same goes for its atmosphere (if there is such a thing as atmosphere fro a gas giant)

Amazing stuff!

I really need to head back and dump that shield generator for a better scoop, scoop that would leave room for the much needed surface scanner.

Next stop: Kepler-107

CMDR SP3CK
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pippo · Jul 14, 2017

Kepler-107

And another bunch of close orbiting Giants...

As shown on those numbers, not quite the Jupiter type, but not quite the Earth type either... Still fairly big though...

I decided to park myself in the Eclipse of the closest one of them all, Kepler-107 1 (or Kepler-107"a" rather)
The following only took 15 minutes...

Still that green halo...

Next stop: Kepler-108

CMDR SP3CK
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pippo · Jul 15, 2017

Ok, don't shoot me...

... I took a little detour back to the bubble to do a cheeky outfitting tweak

I felt I was seriously missing out on not having a Surface Scanner, for some strange phenomenon's like the Class IV "green halo", or simply for digging jumponium materials.

So I opened my Galaxy Map and looked for a High Tech System on the fringe, and picked the closest to me, Varati.
Honest to goodness, I had no idea I was going to find this puppy here!

What better place than this one to find some exploration gear?

I dumped whatever data I had, out of respect for those Cannon folks and the tremendous work that they do, and treated Globule with a fresh lick of paint.

I bookmarked the Gnosis too, in the hope that the bookmark will follow the ship wherever it goes. I might not be dedicated enough to be a part of Cannon, but it's a cool location still and I'm sure it's okay to use the facilities

So... where was I again... Ah, yes! Kepler-108...

Here I come!

CMDR SP3CK
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pippo · Jul 16, 2017

Postcard

Oh... Oh... We're halfway there... Oh... Oh... Flying to Kepler...

So I was buckyballing it back towards Kepler-108, and halfway through, I decided to (kiss)land on this Yttrium and Niobium ripe planet to begin stocking up on the Jumponium ingredients and maybe some day reach Kepler-101

Proudly posing by Globule's front gear.

CMDR SP3CK
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pippo · Jul 16, 2017

Kepler-108

2 Huge Giants around our host, Kepler-108, once again...

Matching, (once again) out Exoplanet Catalogue...

Shame they missed these two beauties, probably didn't spend long enough time waiting for them to complete a full circumnavigation around our G type.
Kepler-108 3 (or "d" - yeah, just figured my mistake, "a" would be the main body/star)

Right in the goldilocks zone, along with this baby... 4...

They obviously didn't make a full circle yet for today's astronomers to notice... shame.

Next stop: Kepler-11

CMDR SP3CK
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pippo · Jul 18, 2017

Kepler-11

It's not often you get a Wikipedia entry for a Kepler Star, which is quite nice as I find them a lot easier to digest than the usual Exoplanet Catalogue.
At least it has been a great learning experience so far, I mean I'm just getting around new terms like A.U. and Parsecs... By the end of it, I should be a certified astronomy nerd!
Loving it.

So this is what we find around here:

Once again, pretty close (Hydrogen and Helium atmosphere prediction aside, regarding those five giant moons).

I did not bother landing on any of these, despite the presence of Yttrium, I'm looking out for Arsenic and Polonium right at this minute.
Next stop: Kepler-110

Not too far...

CMDR SP3CK
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Rustnsawdust · Jul 18, 2017

Thanks for the updates - I'm enjoying following your progress.

AU and parsecs are things I first learned when I first looked through a telescope about 50 years ago. I've always wondered when Han Solo says (in the first Star Wars movie), "You've never heard of the Falcon? She's the ship that made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs", whether it was a joke at Han's expense, or whether the scriptwriters didn't know what a parsec is.

pippo · Jul 19, 2017

Rustnsawdust said:
Thanks for the updates - I'm enjoying following your progress.

AU and parsecs are things I first learned when I first looked through a telescope about 50 years ago. I've always wondered when Han Solo says (in the first Star Wars movie), "You've never heard of the Falcon? She's the ship that made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs", whether it was a joke at Han's expense, or whether the scriptwriters didn't know what a parsec is.

Cheers, and god, I never picked up on it...
[video=youtube;nmyvFEkJSE4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmyvFEkJSE4[/video]
Obiwan and Luke's faces are priceless too, do you reckon they know better?

Orvidius · Jul 19, 2017

Rustnsawdust said:
Thanks for the updates - I'm enjoying following your progress.

AU and parsecs are things I first learned when I first looked through a telescope about 50 years ago. I've always wondered when Han Solo says (in the first Star Wars movie), "You've never heard of the Falcon? She's the ship that made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs", whether it was a joke at Han's expense, or whether the scriptwriters didn't know what a parsec is.

I think the scriptwriters just didn't know what it was. I've heard that in some of the Expanded Universe content somewhere, they retconned it to mean that it was a kind of race where you're trying to accomplish something in the shortest distance. I don't remember the details though... probably should google that.