The Most Mysterious Star in the Universe

shadragon · Jan 10, 2017

Tabby's Star aka KIC 8462852

Kepler has observed up to 22% of this stars light occluded by something. Theories state there is a Dyson Sphere under construction, alien megastructure or some other sort of massive object between us and Tabby's Star. I searched for this in-game, but it does not come up in a GalMap search.

Wikipedia: "KIC 8462852 in Cygnus is located roughly halfway between the major visually apparent (visible to the naked eye) bright stars Deneb (α Cyg, α Cygni, Alpha Cygni) and Delta Cygni (δ Cyg, δ Cygni) as part of the Northern Cross. KIC 8462852 is situated south of Omicron¹ Cygni (ο¹ Cygni, 31 Cygni), and northeast of the star cluster NGC 6866. While only a few arcminutes away from the cluster, it is unrelated and closer to the Sun than it is to the star cluster."

Is this in game under a different name?

http://www.space.com/34303-alien-megastructure-star-strange-dimming-mystery.html

[video=youtube_share;gypAjPp6eps]https://youtu.be/gypAjPp6eps[/video]

IndigoWyrd · Jan 10, 2017

There are a few real-world stars that don't appear in the game that would be worth the time to go visit:

HD 140283 : Estimated to be 14.3 billion years old.

HE 1523-0901 : Estimated to be 13.2 billion years old

MY Camelopardalis : A binary pair that touch each other in orbit of a common planet.

SAO 206462 : A star with two spiral "arms"

HV 2112 : A Red Giant, with a neutron star "nested" inside of it.

But none of these seem to be in-game, or they're cataloged in some different way with a different designation.
If anyone knows the identity of any of these, do tell.

Para Handy · Jan 10, 2017

(I don't have a problem with this subject being raised again, in case anyone thinks that is why I am posting this reply, it is good that real-world interesting things are investigated.)

Last time we covered this in the forums was in August I think:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...52-Does-it-exist-in-game-and-can-we-go-there?

and in the Astronomy sub-forum in June:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/253489-Where-s-the-Flux

I think the consensus is that Tabby's Star is not modelled in E D - I certainly have not found it using any of the designations it is known by.

Lima · Jan 10, 2017

It would be a bit silly to model it when we don't know what exactly is making it so weird.

Andovar · Jan 10, 2017

Even if it did exist in-game, you know FD would have it permit-locked.

Thanks for posting though. It is quite an interesting phenomenon.

askavir · Jan 10, 2017

IndigoWyrd said:
There are a few real-world stars that don't appear in the game that would be worth the time to go visit:

HD 140283 : Estimated to be 14.3 billion years old.

HE 1523-0901 : Estimated to be 13.2 billion years old

MY Camelopardalis : A binary pair that touch each other in orbit of a common planet.

SAO 206462 : A star with two spiral "arms"

HV 2112 : A Red Giant, with a neutron star "nested" inside of it.

But none of these seem to be in-game, or they're cataloged in some different way with a different designation.
If anyone knows the identity of any of these, do tell.

Don't forget the Pistol Star, UY Scuty and others.

Darth Ender · Jan 10, 2017

I prefer my astronomy to come from stern looking scientists .....there's something unnerving about happy astronomers. Either they're crazy or they know we're all about to die soon and aren't allowed to tell us because the illuminati prohibits them from telling us all the secrets they have discovered.

CMDR Dreamstate · Jan 10, 2017

I've had a similar problem when looking for certain systems - I've been looking for Zeta Reticuli in the game (binary star system in real life: link), as that system was mentioned by the first (and famous) abduction case involving Betty and Barney Hill (link).

It's only 39.17ly from Earth, but it doesn't exist in Elite - I've just doubled checked by searching "Zeta" and went through all the suffixes alphabetically from Zeta "A" to Zeta "Z" - and no sign of Zeta Reticuli.

Shame on Frontier.

Ziljan · Jan 10, 2017

Lima said:
It would be a bit silly to model it when we don't know what exactly is making it so weird.

It would be fine if Frontier created a system with a insane amount of comets. Or even a partial derilict Dyson sphere from a defunct civilization. They can be wrong. They will already be wrong about a great many things in any case because the science is always evolving.

Nick Sticks · Jan 10, 2017

It gets worse, the star in Orion my friends had named for me isn't in ED either.......
.

WR3ND · Jan 10, 2017

You hear about this once in a while on the forums. The long and the short of it: People like to make noise.

Ziljan · Jan 10, 2017

Nick Sticks said:
It gets worse, the star in Orion my friends had named for me isn't in ED either.......
.

Before you or your friends give any more money to hucksters, please be aware only the IAU can issue official names, and they definitely are NOT for sale.

http://www.iau.org/public/themes/buying_star_names/

Roybe · Jan 10, 2017

Darth Ender said:
I prefer my astronomy to come from stern looking scientists .....there's something unnerving about happy astronomers. Either they're crazy or they know we're all about to die soon and aren't allowed to tell us because the illuminati prohibits them from telling us all the secrets they have discovered.

If you can't find any astronomers to question...I'd expect them to know this was happening in the next few hours:

Para Handy · Jan 10, 2017

CMDR Dreamstate said:
I've had a similar problem when looking for certain systems - I've been looking for Zeta Reticuli in the game (binary star system in real life: link), as that system was mentioned by the first (and famous) abduction case involving Betty and Barney Hill (link).

It's only 39.17ly from Earth, but it doesn't exist in Elite - I've just doubled checked by searching "Zeta" and went through all the suffixes alphabetically from Zeta "A" to Zeta "Z" - and no sign of Zeta Reticuli.

Shame on Frontier.

It actually is in the game - HIP 15371 in the search box will take you there, it is labelled ZETA-1 RETICULI

goemon · Jan 10, 2017

CMDR Dreamstate said:
I've had a similar problem when looking for certain systems - I've been looking for Zeta Reticuli in the game (binary star system in real life: link), as that system was mentioned by the first (and famous) abduction case involving Betty and Barney Hill (link).

It's only 39.17ly from Earth, but it doesn't exist in Elite - I've just doubled checked by searching "Zeta" and went through all the suffixes alphabetically from Zeta "A" to Zeta "Z" - and no sign of Zeta Reticuli.

Shame on Frontier.

well, how about zeta-1 reticuli, which has the same HIP number as ζ Reticuli, cmdr?

before jumping to conclusions, i suggest at least to try http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/ for various designations, and especially HIP numbers can be used to search in the galmap.

that said, yes, some stars aren#t in the game. i personally miss the pistol star most.

but zeta reticuli is.

CMDR Dreamstate · Jan 10, 2017

MalcYorks said:
It actually is in the game - HIP 15371 in the search box will take you there, it is labelled ZETA-1 RETICULI

THANK YOU!

Zeta-1 !? ... sigh, oh well... will take a look at it later

- - - Updated - - -

goemon said:
well, how about zeta-1 reticuli, which has the same HIP number as ζ Reticuli, cmdr?

before jumping to conclusions, i suggest at least to try http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/ for various designations, and especially HIP numbers can be used to search in the galmap.

that said, yes, some stars aren#t in the game. i personally miss the pistol star most.

but zeta reticuli is.

/sarcasm Yes, because everyone who plays elite is an astronomer and knows these little things

DavidMik · Jan 10, 2017

Gonna burst the bubble here, but it's very unlikely that there's any sort of megastructure. What's more likely is that large swathes of comet dust are blocking the light. They may have gone into that in the video but I am busy searching the rift right now...

Ziljan · Jan 10, 2017

goemon said:
well, how about zeta-1 reticuli, which has the same HIP number as ζ Reticuli, cmdr?

before jumping to conclusions, i suggest at least to try http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/ for various designations, and especially HIP numbers can be used to search in the galmap.

that said, yes, some stars aren#t in the game. i personally miss the pistol star most.

but zeta reticuli is.

Indeed many star systems in the game are under different aliases. A few multi star systems are even broken up in the game in strange ways, such that you need to travel to the designated main star before you are allowed to hyperjump to the companion star.

- - - Updated - - -

CMDR Dreamstate said:
THANK YOU!

Zeta-1 !? ... sigh, oh well... will take a look at it later

- - - Updated - - -

/sarcasm Yes, because everyone who plays elite is an astronomer and knows these little things

Over a year ago I began posting and reposting a bunch of links on the Exploration forum that are now common knowledge for most experienced Explorers. So yes, this game is a wonderful RL education tool as well as just an amazing and fun game.

Nick Sticks · Jan 10, 2017

Ziljan said:
Before you or your friends give any more money to hucksters, please be aware only the IAU can issue official names, and they definitely are NOT for sale.

http://www.iau.org/public/themes/buying_star_names/

Thanks, but they (and me) were aware of that, which was part of the joke on me.
.

Lima · Jan 10, 2017

Ziljan said:
It would be fine if Frontier created a system with a insane amount of comets. Or even a partial derilict Dyson sphere from a defunct civilization. They can be wrong. They will already be wrong about a great many things in any case because the science is always evolving.

Yeah but they'll have to revisit it when we discover what exactly it is (hopefully when James Webb gets in orbit) which just seems like a waste.

I'd rather have it being a mystery for now rather than another F-type star but with 100 asteroid belts around it