The largest rings

Heavy Johnson · Mar 4, 2020

The following is data is provided with the hopes that people will go check these things out and take amazing pictures, submit to the GMP anything interesting.

Top 10 Largest Rings - stars - (Max Outer Radius) (radius in km)

Body Name	isStar	Body Type	Ring Name	Ring Type	Ring Mass	Inner Radius	Outer Radius
Drumboa AA-A h168 B 3	1	M (Red dwarf) Star	Drumboa AA-A h168 B 3 A Ring	Metal Rich	5.3674E+14	32767000	82568000
Phleedgae AA-A h54 B 3	1	K (Yellow-Orange) Star	Phleedgae AA-A h54 B 3 A Ring	Rocky	5.2356E+14	20307000	81229000
HIP 104643 AB 1	1	M (Red dwarf) Star	HIP 104643 AB 1 A Ring	Rocky	5.4766E+15	1930100	77819000
Hypiae Ausms AA-A h396 2	1	L (Brown dwarf) Star	Hypiae Ausms AA-A h396 2 A Ring	Metal Rich	3.0127E+15	30274000	76286000
Spoihaae FB-X f1-1082 3	1	M (Red dwarf) Star	Spoihaae FB-X f1-1082 3 A Ring	Metal Rich	3.9964E+14	11925000	75716000
Myumbiae AA-A h3 3	1	Neutron Star	Myumbiae AA-A h3 3 C Ring	Metal Rich	4.7526E+15	18487000	73950000
Juena EG-Y g224 4	1	L (Brown dwarf) Star	Juena EG-Y g224 4 A Ring	Metal Rich	9.9831E+13	45421000	72102000
HD 167016 B 3	1	T (Brown dwarf) Star	HD 167016 B 3 A Ring	Rocky	8.3534E+13	28591000	72044000
Blaa Phoe AA-A g2 C 4	1	L (Brown dwarf) Star	Blaa Phoe AA-A g2 C 4 A Ring	Rocky	6.7176E+13	7142900	71996000
Eol Prou PS-U f2-3453 3	1	L (Brown dwarf) Star	Eol Prou PS-U f2-3453 3 A Ring	Metal Rich	2.4603E+15	44748000	71032000

Top 10 Largest Rings - not Stars - (Max Outer Radius) (radius in km)

Body Name	Body Type	Ring Name	Ring Type	Ring Mass	Inner Radius	Outer Radius
Col 107 Sector UY-Q b34-4 AB 3	Class IV gas giant	Col 107 Sector UY-Q b34-4 AB 3 B Ring	Icy	3.9905E+13	7129100	45267000
Phroi Byoe ZT-Y d1-679 6	Class IV gas giant	Phroi Byoe ZT-Y d1-679 6 C Ring	Icy	6.2211E+12	632440	39873000
Thaileia TM-A c2-0 7	Class IV gas giant	Thaileia TM-A c2-0 7 C Ring	Icy	9.89E+13	1547300	39300000
Ploi Aewsy AB-V d3-4 14	Helium-rich gas giant	Ploi Aewsy AB-V d3-4 14 C Ring	Metal Rich	2.9507E+13	6078500	38512000
Swoiphs RL-J d10-47 9	Class IV gas giant	Swoiphs RL-J d10-47 9 C Ring	Icy	8.9888E+14	926680	37361000
Koiju IR-M d7-2 11	Class IV gas giant	Koiju IR-M d7-2 11 B Ring	Icy	1.6061E+14	3694300	37236000
Blae Phoe BP-Q d5-376 A 14	Helium-rich gas giant	Blae Phoe BP-Q d5-376 A 14 C Ring	Icy	8.892E+13	14709000	37038000
Ellaisms QY-Z d13-12 8	Class IV gas giant	Ellaisms QY-Z d13-12 8 C Ring	Rocky	2.6898E+14	916920	36968000
Traikeou RY-Q d5-1 10	Class IV gas giant	Traikeou RY-Q d5-1 10 B Ring	Icy	1.3346E+13	23220000	36853000
Dryeia Prou TY-Z d3 B 4	Class III gas giant	Dryeia Prou TY-Z d3 B 4 C Ring	Icy	1.3833E+13	1446800	36746000

Top 10 Largest Rings (total width, Outer-Inner) (radius in km)

Body Name	Body Type	Ring Name	Ring Type	Ring Mass	Inner Radius	Outer Radius	width
Phroi Byoe ZT-Y d1-679 6	Class IV gas giant	Phroi Byoe ZT-Y d1-679 6 C Ring	Icy	6.2211E+12	632440	39873000	39240560
Col 107 Sector UY-Q b34-4 AB 3	Class IV gas giant	Col 107 Sector UY-Q b34-4 AB 3 B Ring	Icy	3.9905E+13	7129100	45267000	38137900
Thaileia TM-A c2-0 7	Class IV gas giant	Thaileia TM-A c2-0 7 C Ring	Icy	9.89E+13	1547300	39300000	37752700
Swoiphs RL-J d10-47 9	Class IV gas giant	Swoiphs RL-J d10-47 9 C Ring	Icy	8.9888E+14	926680	37361000	36434320
Ellaisms QY-Z d13-12 8	Class IV gas giant	Ellaisms QY-Z d13-12 8 C Ring	Rocky	2.6898E+14	916920	36968000	36051080
Dryeia Prou TY-Z d3 B 4	Class III gas giant	Dryeia Prou TY-Z d3 B 4 C Ring	Icy	1.3833E+13	1446800	36746000	35299200
Koiju IR-M d7-2 11	Class IV gas giant	Koiju IR-M d7-2 11 B Ring	Icy	1.6061E+14	3694300	37236000	33541700
Drojau IX-R d5-23 7	Class IV gas giant	Drojau IX-R d5-23 7 B Ring	Metal Rich	1.1806E+15	2235900	35774000	33538100
Traikaae BD-F c13-2 10	Helium-rich gas giant	Traikaae BD-F c13-2 10 C Ring	Icy	1.0105E+14	853770	33957000	33103230
Nyeajaae AR-L d8-55 B 8	Class IV gas giant	Nyeajaae AR-L d8-55 B 8 C Ring	Icy	6.6253E+13	1371800	34460000	33088200

Top 10 Largest Rings (Ring Mass) (mass in tons)

Body Name	Body Type	Ring Name	Ring Type	Ring Mass
Pra Eaewsy VP-V d3-59 8	Class III gas giant	Pra Eaewsy VP-V d3-59 8 B Ring	Metal Rich	4.6735E+15
Gludgoe TV-X c1-1 2	Class III gas giant	Gludgoe TV-X c1-1 2 B Ring	Icy	3.5025E+15
Gludgeia XP-P d5-41 10	Class III gas giant	Gludgeia XP-P d5-41 10 C Ring	Rocky	2.9874E+15
Plaa Ain AJ-T d3-135 5	Class III gas giant	Plaa Ain AJ-T d3-135 5 B Ring	Metal Rich	2.5672E+15
Dryi Auscs GB-X d1-7329 7	Class III gas giant	Dryi Auscs GB-X d1-7329 7 C Ring	Metallic	2.1239E+15
Slegi ZA-W e2-9 9	Class IV gas giant	Slegi ZA-W e2-9 9 C Ring	Rocky	1.7588E+15
Prua Phoe IX-A d14-232 8	Class III gas giant	Prua Phoe IX-A d14-232 8 C Ring	Rocky	1.7025E+15
LTT 12696 3	Class III gas giant	LTT 12696 3 C Ring	Icy	1.6606E+15
Bleae Thua YE-H d10-29 10	Class III gas giant	Bleae Thua YE-H d10-29 10 B Ring	Metallic	1.5355E+15
Dryae Eaescs ZZ-G c13-0 2	Class III gas giant	Dryae Eaescs ZZ-G c13-0 2 C Ring	Icy	1.3918E+15

Shnyrik · Mar 4, 2020

Heavy Johnson said:
with the hopes that people will go check these things out and take amazing pictures

Well, I can say that things are, actually, not that easy with those large rings in ED. Many of them are too sparse to be seen.

Some commanders complained about it and FDevs even answered (unfortunately link doesn't work after forum's "upgrade"):

QA-Jack said:
Water World Planet 2 A in aforementioned system is shown having Metal Rich Rings in system map but none are present in regualr game view
Thanks for your report - This looks to be working as intended.

There was a study of cmdr. Gromsch about visible and invisible planetary rings.

I've also made a small study on that and came to the conclusion that there is a simple way how you can guesstimate from the table whether ring would be rendered as visible or not.

You can calculate ring's density and if it is over approximately 46 tons per cubic km. then the ring would be definitely visible (however, since rings are currently lit only by the light of the main star, this doesn't seem to include rings in the systems where the main body is black hole). If the density is lower, then the ring would be either invisible, or rendered as a set of very nice-looking thin concentric rings (like the ones of the Poseidon's Fury).

Heavy Johnson said:
Top 10 Largest Rings - not Stars - (Max Outer Radius) (radius in km)

I've also made my own study on finding the largest visible planetary ring and I can say that I personally checked #2 and #3 from your list. They have invisible rings.

The largest visible planetary ring I've found so far is in Droju QU-D d13-8 (body #4) and has radius of 34,732 Mkm.

There is also a promising candidate in Pru Aescs RZ-G d10-102 (body #B 10) with 35,983 Mkm. ring, which might be visible, however it is on the other end of the Galaxy from where I am now.

Dr. Nagi · Mar 4, 2020

I'm beginning to see patterns in there...

Heavy Johnson · Mar 4, 2020

I've also made my own study on finding the largest visible planetary ring and I can say that I personally checked #2, #3 from your list. They have invisible rings.

Well, that saves me a trip to the Col 107 sector. Thanks.

Heavy Johnson · Mar 4, 2020

You can calculate ring's density and if it is over approximately 46 tons per cubic km

How can you measure cubic km when you only have 2D info (radius)?

Romeo India Charlie · Mar 4, 2020

Tonight I'll add these systems to my list which will include them in my project's routes. I won't commit to any timing but I will report back what I find.

Do you have these in a file? Just trying to avoid copy-pasting all those system names.

Heavy Johnson · Mar 4, 2020

Romeo India Charlie said:
Do you have these in a file? Just trying to avoid copy-pasting all those system names.

Not anymore.... sorry

Shnyrik · Mar 4, 2020

Heavy Johnson said:
How can you measure cubic km when you only have 2D info (radius)?

Well, yeah, it is difficult to calculate the actual density in real-world units (at least it would require some complicated measurements), but, on the other hand, it is easy to calculate density of rings relative to one another. You see, ED makes "depth" of all rings the same

So we can just replace this parameter in our calculations by 1. Or. maybe 10 km. would sound more realistic, then the margin between visible and invisible rings would be 4,6 tons

Heavy Johnson · Mar 4, 2020

Shnyrik said:
Well, yeah, it is difficult to calculate the actual density in real-world units (at least it would require some complicated measurements), but, on the other hand, it is easy to calculate density of rings relative to one another. You see, ED makes "depth" of all rings the same So we can just replace this parameter in our calculations by, i guess, like 10 km.

Or just use radius and call it square area? XD

Shnyrik · Mar 4, 2020

Heavy Johnson said:
Or just use radius and call it square area? XD

Or something like that

Still, I analyzed (sorry, the document is in Cyrillic, look for page 17, or here is the table with raw data in english) 113 large rings with shepherd moons.

And of them 48 had density over 46 of those "conventional units". And they all were visible. And 43 of them looked like wide dense rings. Something like:

And of the rest 4 looked like sets of dense wide concentric rings. Like that:

And only one was very thin and extremely dense (look for the outer ring, it is dark, but visible):

While 65 had density below 46 "conventional units". And of them 38 were completely invisible and 27 looked like sets of thin concentric rings

Romeo India Charlie · Mar 4, 2020

If anyone wants a spreadsheet version with system, body, measure, unit, type and rank, check "WIP Rings" sheet in my journal's spreadsheet.

MattG · Mar 4, 2020

Drumboa AA-A h168 - name looked familiar so I checked; I discovered this back in 2016. I didn't bother to scan the whole system but I did scan that star because of the ring. I didn't bother taking pictures leading me to believe it was not visible. I was in the habit of taking pictures of large rings and have examples the day before and day after visiting this one.

That said, I believe the rendering mechanics of rings changed since then (though generally making more rings invisible IME). Feel free to prove me wrong, and tag some of the remaining bodies in the system.

Romeo India Charlie · Mar 6, 2020

Just visited HD 167016 B 3 and the ring is not present. Details match with system map but nothing is there.

@Heavy Johnson I assume you don't want submissions to these since there's nothing to see. But let me know if you want them to be handled differently.

Heavy Johnson · Mar 6, 2020

Romeo India Charlie said:
Just visited HD 167016 B 3 and the ring is not present. Details match with system map but nothing is there.

@Heavy Johnson I assume you don't want submissions to these since there's nothing to see. But let me know if you want them to be handled differently.

Yeah only if interesting.

Working on getting data for "visible" rings....

Romeo India Charlie · Mar 8, 2020

EDIT: Added more here to avoid double-posting one-liners:

C ring of Traikaae BD-F c13-2 10 is not visible.
C ring of Thaileia TM-A c2-0 is not visible.

Heavy Johnson said:
Working on getting data for "visible" rings....

Is there anything I can help with here? Can you provide a dataset with data for parent, including all rings and all moons?

Heavy Johnson · Mar 9, 2020

Romeo India Charlie said:
Is there anything I can help with here? Can you provide a dataset with data for parent, including all rings and all moons?

Ord provided a spreadsheet of all rings, but it's huge, at 1.9GB unzipped. I've imported it into my SQLIte db but I have crap SQL skills and haven't yet figured out how to compute mass/total area of the ring, and then update that into the table. I'll send you a link to download the file.

Romeo India Charlie · Mar 9, 2020

Thank you. I'll pick it up this evening and see what I can do with it. I think we have the same hypothesis: that it's a matter of density.

Vithigar · Mar 9, 2020

Note to self: Add a check against a density of 46T/km² to Elite Observatory to flag wide rings as probably non-visible.

Ian Doncaster · Mar 9, 2020

If you can line up correctly, then it's possible to drop out in an invisible ring (I got this screenshot the "easy" way by accidentally crashing in to a slice of it just over the density threshold but still too faint to see)

Still mass-locks, and you still get the small decorative fragments (there's a couple on the centre left of the picture, either side of the canopy bar)

Macros Black · Mar 9, 2020

swoiphs rl-j d10-47