Things I found, and things to clarify about exploration

[Northpin]

Greetings CMDR's

new player here (not quite Epic new, but still ) I am closing in on 400 hrs played. Every once in a while I get the urge to explore some and so far I have made two voyages, totalling to around 50000 ly distance travelled.
For me exploring is quite a mixed bag, sometimes its extremely repetative, and sometimes there is a Water World every second jump. I guess this sounds pretty common.
But what I have the most trouble with, is to determine the true value/ rarity of the things I find along the way, and I hope we can discuss this here a bit.

Now granted, i don't expect to find one ELW after another, but still, in total I have found around 4 undiscovered ones so far which feels like a pretty low percentage. On the other hand, I keep finding terraformable WW around every corner. Are these so much more common? Not to speak of terraformable HMC, which seem to be even more common. I even find more Ammonia worlds than ELW)
I have tried the proposed method of only filtering for F-class Stars, but to no avail. All that did, was (subjectively) limiting my chances to find anything useful at all.

I did however discover some (in my eyes) unusual things during my travels, an would like to list them her in hopes that you guys can give me some insight on how rare or common these are:

• Twins (both being near exact copies of each other in terms of mass and diameter and with same baricenter): 2 class B stars, 2 Ammonia Worlds, 2 Terraformable HMC
• Ringed: Water Worlds, Ammonia Worlds, HMC's, Brown Dwarf Stars
• 4 T-Tauri stars and 4 black HMC with rings in one system
• 7 stars in one system, 6 stars in one system plus ELW
• A and B class star and 8 Gas Giants all without rings,
• System with one of each: G, K, M, L, T class stars
• black/brown Icy Planets?
• 2 complete binary mini Solar Systems orbiting each other

Wouldn't be surprised if these are not that uncommon at all, but I hope to add at least some significance to my expolartion yourney.

Keep an eye open for Green Gas Giants.
Also see if you can find a Gas Giant with 6 or more gas giants as moons

Show us your interesting discoveries!

@Caramel Clown If I knew that you were "collecting" them before, I'd send a handful I found your way. Found a couple extremely fast with very wide but short cones that were just insane. Ah, yes. Butterflies in my own naming scheme :)

forums.frontier.co.uk

 

[Orvidius]

So far I thought that if I jump into a system and nothing shows up at all, not even the main star, this system has never been visited before. Is that not the case? That's what I meant by 'unrevealed systems'.

That's usually the case with anything visited recently. Prior to the FSS replacing the ADS about 2 years ago, nothing was auto-scanned, not even the arrival star. A lot of explorers wouldn't even stop to scan the star unless something else was also interesting in the system map.

I think there was a lot of explorers in both camps: Don't scan anything unless something is interesting, or always scan at least the arrival star.

 

[Ander_Wand]

Most of what we think of as "orbits" are a massive simplification of what actually happens in space, there are no smooth ellipses and the orbit of the moon as it circles the earth while the earth circles the sun is extremely complicated, however there are a few givens that are understood.

I think I recall hearing somewhere that earth and moon kinda 'wobble' around each other.

As an aside, technically the Moon is spiraling slowly away from the Earth, but this is due to the tides. As the Moon pulls on the oceans while the Earth spins, what happens is that the water movement creates a sort of drag against the Earth's crust. So rotational energy is stolen from Earth and translated into a very small acceleration on the Moon, slowly moving it to a higher orbit. But if I remember correctly, the Sun will consume everything before the Moon will get a chance to escape.

But moon can't keep moving away from earth (as varonica said) indefinitely, right? What happens then?

Keep an eye open for Green Gas Giants.
Also see if you can find a Gas Giant with 6 or more gas giants as moons

I have already read about those elusive GG's. If I see one I won't pass on it for sure.
The best I came across so far, where 5 ringed GG's orbiting another GG. I've included the screenshot in a prior post. Does that count at least a little bit?

That's usually the case with anything visited recently. Prior to the FSS replacing the ADS about 2 years ago, nothing was auto-scanned, not even the arrival star. A lot of explorers wouldn't even stop to scan the star unless something else was also interesting in the system map.
I think there was a lot of explorers in both camps: Don't scan anything unless something is interesting, or always scan at least the arrival star.

How can they call themselves explorers, if they don't explore? But I guess the mechanics have changed a bit since then, I mean you never really know for sure if there isn't something interesting until everything is scanned.

 

[marx]

But moon can't keep moving away from earth (as varonica said) indefinitely, right? What happens then?

Right: eventually, as the Moon gets farther, tidal forces would decrease until the Earth-Moon system would be in equilibrium. However, well before this would happen, the Sun will go nova swell into a red giant, possibly engulfing Earth, so it's a moot point.
There are several scenarios of what will happen then, but we don't know which one it's going to be.

But I guess the mechanics have changed a bit since then, I mean you never really know for sure if there isn't something interesting until everything is scanned.

Which, if you think about it, is rather poor design. You don't know if a system might be interesting and worth exploring until after you've finished exploring it.
But well, the FSS was designed for cherry-picking body types, so that's what it does well.

 

[varonica]

But moon can't keep moving away from earth (as varonica said) indefinitely, right? What happens then?

The moon moves further away due to the gravitional effect of the earth rotating faster than the moon orbiting the earth, it pulls on it and gradually accelerates it. At some point the moon and earth will reach a fixed point, where the moon has accelerated and the earth has slowed to a point where the moon and the earth will face each just showing one face, with the moon permanently locked above one point of the earth, it will probably wobble a bit due to the earths own wobble on it's axis, indeed this is already apparent in the moon/earth system, but it should remain that way until the sun burns them both up!

More likely as marx says they will burn up before then though.

 

[ChipStar65]

the Sun will go nova, so it's a moot point.

As long as we are astrosplaining tonight, I have to say that our Sun will not "go nova." A nova is a result of an interaction between stars in a binary system, usually where one has reached white dwarf stage and is pulling matter from the outer atmosphere of its companion. This builds up in the WD's surface until it reaches a critical density and temperature and ignites a thermonuclear explosion we see as a major brightening of a star that was previously almost or completely unseen. "Nova" means "new," so this apparently new star gets that label.

The sun will burn until its hydrogen and possibly helium are exhausted, but its mass is too small to burn oxygen. It will expand and turn as red as Beteguese, its tenuous but still very hot outer fringes reaching as far out as Mars. Earth will be effectively barbecued. Eventually the Sun will cool, shrink, and likely push its remnant atmosphere out into a glorious planetary nebula as it transforms into a small white dwarf.

There is a lot more detail* to the ending of the Sun, but it is not fated to be the type of star that will "go nova."


*An excellent essay on star formation, lifetimes, and endings: https://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/~infocom/The Website/index.html

 

[varonica]

As long as we are astrosplaining tonight, I have to say that our Sun will not "go nova."

Hah I didn't pick up on that, I should have, I was skim reading, red giant all the way then little dwarf as you say!

 

[iain666]

As an aside, technically the Moon is spiraling slowly away from the Earth

Which also means we're pretty lucky to get the perfect eclipses we do, up until recently (geologically speaking) the moon was bigger than the sun in the sky so would have completely hidden it without giving us the amazing views of the corona and in another few million years it'll appear smaller in the sky and total eclipses won't happen ever again.

 

[marx]

As long as we are astrosplaining tonight, I have to say that our Sun will not "go nova."

Thanks for the correction! I used the wrong term, corrected it now. Not even sure why I misremembered that nova would encompass all ends of stars, besides supernovae of course.

 

[ChipStar65]

I ran across a very entertaining* essay about stars' birth, life and death for any Commanders seeking to expand their knowledge of the actual galaxy and Universe:

The Life And Death Of Stars

*Well, entertaining for us astronerds, for sure

 

[Orvidius]

Which also means we're pretty lucky to get the perfect eclipses we do, up until recently (geologically speaking) the moon was bigger than the sun in the sky so would have completely hidden it without giving us the amazing views of the corona and in another few million years it'll appear smaller in the sky and total eclipses won't happen ever again.

Yeah, that's true. We live at a very fortunate time, in this regard. I saw some estimates that say the moon was about 10x closer when it originally formed. The tidal forces would have been very significant at the time, too.

Just to add some further detail from the previous discussion points, if I recall correctly, the moon would move far enough away to escape earth's orbit before it would sufficiently slow the earth's rotation in order to stop moving away. That is, it's not slowing earth's rotation enough to avoid escaping its orbit. Given enough time, it would escape earth and move into a solar orbit. But this would take considerably longer than the lifespan of the Sun, so it's definitely a moot point.

 

[Ander_Wand]

I ran across a very entertaining* essay about stars' birth, life and death for any Commanders seeking to expand their knowledge of the actual galaxy and Universe:
*Well, entertaining for us astronerds, for sure

Thx for the link, promises to be an interesting read!
Funny how a video game can have you expand your knowledge. But seems like that's just the nature of ED, also judging by the previous discussion here. I am almost itching to get back into my trusty Phantom 'Wanderer II' and go exploring some more after the holidays!

 

[varonica]

Yeah, that's true. We live at a very fortunate time, in this regard. I saw some estimates that say the moon was about 10x closer when it originally formed. The tidal forces would have been very significant at the time, too.

Just to add some further detail from the previous discussion points, if I recall correctly, the moon would move far enough away to escape earth's orbit before it would sufficiently slow the earth's rotation in order to stop moving away. That is, it's not slowing earth's rotation enough to avoid escaping its orbit. Given enough time, it would escape earth and move into a solar orbit. But this would take considerably longer than the lifespan of the Sun, so it's definitely a moot point.

If the earth moon systems survives the Red Giant phase of the sun...some 3 or 4 billion years away, the moon will eventually reverse course and strike the earth in about 65b years, it will never escape!

Earth And Moon May Be On Long-Term Collision Course

The Earth and Moon may be on a very long-term collision course.

www.forbes.com

 

[Orvidius]

If the earth moon systems survives the Red Giant phase of the sun...some 3 or 4 billion years away, the moon will eventually reverse course and strike the earth in about 65b years, it will never escape!

Earth And Moon May Be On Long-Term Collision Course

The Earth and Moon may be on a very long-term collision course.

www.forbes.com

Huh interesting. That's not what I had read previously. I wonder how well accepted that prediction is. You would think that once tidally locked, it would be relatively stable, even with the presence of the oceans, but I'm sure there's something I'm overlooking. Very cool, thanks for the article!

 

[varonica]

Huh interesting. That's not what I had read previously. I wonder how well accepted that prediction is. You would think that once tidally locked, it would be relatively stable, even with the presence of the oceans, but I'm sure there's something I'm overlooking. Very cool, thanks for the article!

Predicting something 65b years in the future is always going to be a bit iffy, but we musn't get locked into the oceans when we think about tidal locking, they are just a sign of tidal forces not the cause of them, that's like blaming windmills for the wind! I suspect what we are missing is the behaviour of the molten magma outer core and solid metal inner core, as the magma outer core cools off there will be some major changes in tidal forces as the solid metal inner core tries to keep spinning against the cooling magma, but then again I am sure Futurama said it was all because of the cats!

 

[Hfarl]

*An excellent essay on star formation, lifetimes, and endings: https://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/~infocom/The Website/index.html

Thanks for the link, this is a fascinating read!

 

[Ander_Wand]

Thanks for the link, this is a fascinating read!

Second this, very interesting indeed!

 

[Ander_Wand]

Before heading out for my next trip, I would like to tweak my Phantom build a little more, specifically its powerplant. Initially I went for max integrity, but later heard that damage from hitting exclusion zones is absolute/ percentage based. So should I rather go for low emissions/ thermal spread? This would mean that I have to go for a 3A instead of the 2A, and still have to turn off shields: Phantom opt Is that worth it? Any other suggestions regarding my build?

On that note, after learning the hard way that switching off orbital lines also removes the exclusion zone markers... is there a way to only have the latter shown? Really dislike all those orbital lines cluttering my FoV.

 

[Rudi Raumkraut]

Before heading out for my next trip, I would like to tweak my Phantom build a little more, specifically its powerplant. Initially I went for max integrity, but later heard that damage from hitting exclusion zones is absolute/ percentage based. So should I rather go for low emissions/ thermal spread? This would mean that I have to go for a 3A instead of the 2A, and still have to turn off shields: Phantom opt Is that worth it? Any other suggestions regarding my build?

On that note, after learning the hard way that switching off orbital lines also removes the exclusion zone markers... is there a way to only have the latter shown? Really dislike all those orbital lines cluttering my FoV.

AFAIK you can only turn off all or nothing

Your build would work fine with a
3A PP LowEmission G3, monstered, or
2A PP Armoured G5, monstered

A 3A Armoured with thermal spread would be a cool enough solution with some more power output without losing significant range...

 

[Ander_Wand]

That's a shame... maybe with some external tool/ mod?

Ok, this gets interesting now. As I turn off my shields when I am out exploring anyway, the lower power would not be a problem for me. You still would recommend going armoured? What does the % efficiency value mean actually? Thermal effieciency?