Well I've just discovered a new astronomical phenomena

[Greyhawk]

Feast your eyes on the moon that is orbiting IN the ring of a gas giant:

Here approaching the graphics cant handle the effect - the rings show up through the moon:



Well I thought that was interesting so I went in for a closer view. Little did I realise the danger I was in. You see this was a VERY small moon and a very big ring. Its really tough to gauge size in space. So after wondering what was happening to the stars as they went out one by one I realised to my horror that the planet was in fact orbiting so quickly it was about to steamroller my little Orca. I had time to quickly snap this one before getting the hell out of dodge...



After the moon passed by I had a chance to drop out of SC and take some snaps:





From inside the ring. The moon was orbiting so quickly I couldn't catch up with it in normal space so by the time I got positioned it had moved off some way:



This place is some 480,000 ls away from the jump point so its a pain to get to but if you want to play chicken with a moon its a great place to go....

 

[Daud]

There's a moon like that near He Bo in populated space.

 

[Greyhawk]

Well here's the second one then

 

[Greyhawk]

Actually just realised I wanted to post this in the explorers forum - accidentally posted it here...

 

[Yaffle]

Actually just realised I wanted to post this in the explorers forum - accidentally posted it here...

Moved it for you

 

[Greyhawk]

Thanks Yaffle

 

[Ziljan]

Saturn has moons inside its rings as well. They are quite small compared to the rings though. Haven't looked for them in game yet.

 

[EAGLE 5]

Saturn has moons inside its rings as well. They are quite small compared to the rings though. Haven't looked for them in game yet.

Indeed they are called shepherd moons and they are responsible for the gaps in the rings which they create with their own gravitational force. But they are quite small though.

 

[dognosh]

+1 rep greyhawk, thanks

 

[Oopsie Daisy]

So, noob explorer here. How do you actually get into the rings? I ask because I tried and super cruise seems too fast (fear of running into a rock) and normal space travel too slow. Or do you just jump to the planet like you would a station?

 

[DamnTheseVoices]

Indeed they are called shepherd moons and they are responsible for the gaps in the rings which they create with their own gravitational force. But they are quite small though.

I'm a noob and was studying up on this a few weeks ago re: the ring gaps and shepherd moons. Astronomy is so Fascinating!

 

[Surly_Badger]

So, noob explorer here. How do you actually get into the rings? I ask because I tried and super cruise seems too fast (fear of running into a rock) and normal space travel too slow. Or do you just jump to the planet like you would a station?

Supercruise up to them then hit the Frame-Shift Drive button and it'll drop you out of supercruise. If you're going 30km/s it won't do you any damage. Or you can fly right at the rings and let the safety dump stop you in the nick of time (and take some damage)

Edit: if those shepherd moons are creating gaps in the rings, presumably they're constantly getting shot-peened by asteroids. I bet the whole thing is pretty visually dramatic. I daydream that some day some explorer will find the core of a planetoid that had been slammed by rocks for millions of years and is down to just a solid hunk of metal, maybe platinum, or a large carbon crystal.

 

[Sysmon]

The Solar System does not have shepherd moons in this game, only the major moons of Jupiter and Saturn are so far represented.

HairballHacker, you can skim close to the rings going < 1000 kms, then drop out of SuperCruise when the impact warning gets annoying (and you can see individual rocks). Likely still a bit of a hike to get in among the rocks themselves, but not too far to go.

S

 

[Greyhawk]

SC will drop you out as soon as you get close then you can just fly in normal space. I like to skim the rings - like a plane coming in to land and then hit the rings at 30km/s. I don't know if your ship will be damaged if you try it at a faster speed.

 

[Erimus Kamzel]

Nice find.

I once found an L-type star with a ring system that was embedded in its surface. I made the mistake of exiting SC so close to the star where the belt intersected the surface that I not only took heat damage but couldn't SC away due to being mass-locked by the belt. Nearly snuffed it.

 

[Varrag]

The Solar System does not have shepherd moons in this game, only the major moons of Jupiter and Saturn are so far represented.

Imagine if all planets, moons and dwarf planets in Solar system are represented in game: space honk should return tens of thousands objects

 

[iain666]

SC will drop you out as soon as you get close then you can just fly in normal space. I like to skim the rings - like a plane coming in to land and then hit the rings at 30km/s. I don't know if your ship will be damaged if you try it at a faster speed.

So long as you're at safe SC exit speeds (<1000km/s) then you're fine with a planned drop or a PROX-forced drop. So just point at the ring, go at safe SC exit speeds until it forces you out and then you're in the ring.

 

[Ziljan]

What is more fun that flying through the asteroid fields? Flying inside the gaps in supercruise at breakneck speed, trying NOT to crash into the rings on either side.

 

[xondk]

Found one of those myself, was a scary one because it was orbitting faster then my asp could fly, so if I jumped out of supercruise, it would get closer and closer towards me.



That was a very scary one.

If you ever feel like playing chicken with a planet, go there

 

[sonicology]

That's no moon...